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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Rory also started hers, wincing at the noise. She was never going to like that.

"Okay, on your mark...get set...." she yelled.

"Go!" Sam took off like a shot, trying to get ahead of Rory before they headed into a canyon.

Rory, though going faster than she had earlier, was not exactly speeding along. She watched Sam ahead, and pressed forward on the control to speed up a little, trying to block out the noise.

Sam had pretty much forgotten Rory was back there as she headed into a turn, throttling back a little so she didn't flip over ~~again~~. She didn't notice the noise, but she did miss having her hair blowing back as she flew. That had been nice.

Rory clung to her controller as she rounded the same corner, the podracer turning entirely on its side.

And Rory on the other hand was very glad she had thought to keep her hair tied back, since having long hair whipping in her face would be less than fun.

Since she still wasn't entirely used to the podracer, when she tried to take it back up to speed, she ended up turning it sharply to the left instead, narrowly missing the wall as she corrected to the right.

Now she just had to hope and pray she didn't run into Rory.

Rory panicked, and with a slight shriek, she reflexively sent her podracer under Sam's.

And as she made the same correction, she actually managed to match Sam's speed, so that she was flying directly below her.

Grinning, Sam decided to give up racing and winning for the moment, and tried to match her podracer's movements and speed to those of Rory's on the upper plane, including dips.

Okay, it's possible Rory was starting to get the hang of this, noise be damned.

And it's a good thing that the noise was there, since she was going "EEEEEE!" and that was not all that dignified.

Sam wished she had comms to talk to Rory--she wanted to see if the other girl would follow if she picked up speed. She did so, but didn't fly directly in front of Rory--she angled slightly to take the upcoming curve.

Rory bit her lip and mimicked Sam, though her podracer was flying a bit less smoothly. Video games weren't the same, after all.

Sam grinned when she felt the vibrations below her and sped up a little bit more as she leveled out.

Rory, her hands numb from the vibrations, glanced up and tried to level out the same way.

Pity that she hit that button that gave her the extra boost of speed.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE," she said eloquently as she shot forward.

"Oh, well then," As Rory shot ahead of her, Sam punched the podracer forward, trying to catch her, but she'd forgotten (at least for the moment) about the little button.

Rory slowed slightly as the boost of speed wore off, and eased up a little on the accelerator.

Because going that fast? With so little control? Rory was a little worried.

Pleased as she saw Rory drop back a little, Sam pushed the podracer faster, until she overtook the other speeder and kept right on going, narrowly missing a cavern wall.

"HI SAM," Rory shouted at the racer above and ahead of her. She swerved away from the wall, lightly bumping one of the...things...against it.

She grinned, because it was the first time she had actually messed up.

Sam flew through the cavern, dipping down a little lower over the water as she flew over, leaving waves on its surface, then arrowed up again slightly, aiming for a straight away so she could see how fast the podracer could really go.

And then she remembered the extra button, pressed it, and took off in a blur.

"BYE SAM," Rory shouted. She took the same path at a slower pace, smiling at the similar waves she sent across the water, and bit her lip as she sped up to pursue the other racer.

"FLYING KIND OF DOESN'T SUCK," she shrieked gleefully to no one.

Sam banked hard left and shot sideways through a narrow canyon, easing back on the speed a little, but not much.

Flight and Flying (Friday, May 26, morning)

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Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore

Re: Paired up race: Sam Carter and Rory Gilmore