(Untitled)
Characters: Rogue (desig_survivor ), an NPC griffin named Windmere, open to anyone
Date/Time: We'll say... well, sure, January 31, midafternoon.
Location: The stables on Melee Island, or more precisely a cleared space outside of the stables.
Rating: PG?
Summary: Rogue is training himself on griffin riding. Is there anyone in the neighborhood?
( I said I'm gonna let him fly )
Date/Time: We'll say... well, sure, January 31, midafternoon.
Location: The stables on Melee Island, or more precisely a cleared space outside of the stables.
Rating: PG?
Summary: Rogue is training himself on griffin riding. Is there anyone in the neighborhood?
( I said I'm gonna let him fly )
"The wolves - I'm told that wolves are basically untamed dogs. The ones here are huge, but they supposedly look and act a lot like normal ones." He paused to murmur when Windmere arched her neck, staring intensely up at nothing his own eyes could pick out. "So sometimes when they're feeling affectionate they open their jaws and close them on someone's face. Sometimes another wolf, sometimes a person. They don't bite down at all, they let go immediately, but I'm told that's what it means. 'I could kill you, but I like you, so I won't'. It's a wild predator thing - these animals are only mostly tame."
Finally the griffin relaxed enough to sit, catlike, preening her shoulder, and Rogue turned away from her, absently massaging the palm of his right hand. It wasn't freezing today, but it was chilly, and his hand was aching. "You can come in, if you want. Just move slowly and don't make any threatening gestures."
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He nodded. "I wasn't aware they did that. Wolves are more different than just in form, I assume." He was familiar with the concept and could call to mind the image of a wolf, but he had no idea how it would act-- or most any other animals, for that matter. In hindsight, he made a mental note to rethink considering work with the animals in Edensphere.
"I'll do my best not to upset her." He climbed over the fence carefully and smoothly, so as to make his movements clear to the griffin. "I take it this is a hobby of yours? Do you simply have an affinity with animals?"
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"I've seen them do that a few times, and I think beaking is a little safer. If Windmere messes up, I get knocked over. If a wolf messed up, I'd bleed." He shrugged. Behind him Windmere started working on the long primary feathers of her wing. "The griffins and the wolves aren't as popular as the other animals, and there aren't as many here, because they're not as tame. And because I don't think kodos and horses eat meat." Chocobos, he wasn't so sure about. All of them could be dangerous, though.
Windmere watched Dyad for a moment, her pupils contracting briefly, before going back to preening her wings. "That's a good sign," he told Dyad, faintly envious. "I'm told that that means she's not feeling nervous. She didn't do that when I was this close until I'd been working with her for five days."
"The only ways to fly, here, are on animals," Rogue said in a softer, more thoughtful voice. "I need to fly. If I don't fly - well, I can handle it. But after too long grounded, I get this itch. I can't stop thinking about it. If flying means learning how to handle a griffin, well," he stopped and spread his hands, palms up, indicating the creature sitting behind him. He'd spent more time working with her than he had at his job.
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Kodos was a word he didn't recognize, but he nodded nonetheless. "I've only seen the chocobos and the... long-eared pigs, admittedly." What were they called? Rappigs? "I'll keep it in mind. At least I'll know it isn't an attack." At the note that her preening was good, his lips curled up slightly. That was good- it meant he wasn't messing up, or endangering them.
"Flying..." he trailed off, thinking about that for a moment. He could identify with the feeling, but at the same time, he could associate with it not only a sense of freedom and liberation, but also... something he had trouble naming. Like a duty, but not one to be proud of, in a way. "I can almost understand. Not to as strong of an extent, but similar."
He tilted his head to look back over the griffin- a bizarre mash of body parts that really shouldn't belong together, the way it shouldn't be able to get off the ground, and yet managed to- there was surely some anatomical thing he wasn't aware of, so he brushed aside everything that told him that they shouldn't exist. "At least there's a method to flying here, even if it's on animals. Do you plan on taking her about Edensphere?"
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"Horses are equines of some kind, and kodos are..." He paused, and had to take a moment to look back as Windmere started to nibble delicately at dirt on her forefeet, beak rasping on her scales. "They're kodos. Massive splay-legged creatures with horns. I've only seen them in passing, really. Horses get on with kodos, wolves get on with griffins, chocobos can be near anything, but horses and griffins are kept as far apart as possible." He'd asked about it a while back and one of the grooms had spun out a long story about griffin-horse animosity and some bizarre crossbreed called a hippogriff that was hated by both. Rogue had no idea if it was true.
"I was a pilot," he said, softly but with conviction, staring at nothing in particular. "That's really all that I can say for sure. I guess flying is just about my only solid connection to who I was." That wasn't true - Biggs was the other connection, someone with a face and voice and name that were all familiar, even if the name didn't fit. No need to bring him up here, though.
Windmere yawned in that slightly alarming way griffins yawned, opening her heavy beak almost a hundred and eighty degrees, then shutting it with a tok. Rogue turned and shook his head at her, dropping his voice an octave and 'beaking' her by swatting lightly at the griffin's bill and nostrils. "Believe it or not, I can't spend every second with you talking about you, Windmere. You've got an incredible ego." She bird-smiled as if she understood, and he laughed. "It is. It's so huge that you think you can control it."
Here was a good sign - she laid herself down with her forelegs crossed daintily, lowered her head, and puffed out her feathers. "That means she wants a scratch," he told Dyad, reaching dutifully for the back of Windmere's neck and digging through the feathers to reach her skin. "If you want to try and touch her, this is probably the best time. And... well, it depends on whether I can get her to take off. Windmere's getting old for a griffin, and I'm told that she's reluctant to actually fly."
Secretly - well, all right, not-so-secretly - he planned to tame a hummingbird. They were larger, faster, more agile, more fearless. And maybe one could carry him through the hole in the Sphere glass.
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He nodded at the way they should be kept apart- perhaps it had to do with predator/prey relations. It made sense that wolves would eat the horses... but why a wolf could get along with a chocobo was beyond him. He was drawn from his line of thought as soon as Rogue mentioned piloting, though, the notion and word striking a deep chord in him-- but a vague enough one to give little to no context besides 'oh, well, that's familiar.'
He watched Windmere's yawn as he thought of this, before shaking his head. "You're lucky to have that knowledge, then. I don't believe my own dream had any sort of substantial fact to it." He let out a soft laugh. "Just a blur of people and faces... but I suppose it's at least enough to start with." he couldn't associate the idea with flying much in his mind-- in fact, most of his dream he was falling or running.. but that didn't lower the appeal.
Dyad stepped forward softly as Windmere laid down, making sure to stay easily within the griffin's sight as he reached forward to tentatively brush her feathers, marveling at how different they felt than he had expected-- but then again, not everything could be soft and furry like Veda. After a moment, he slid his fingers under her feathers to scratch at her skin, watching the way the creature moved and behaved. "At least she's quite friendly, though." or was friendly as a monstrous lion/eagle hybrid could be.
"And it helps practice for when you will be able to fly on one, I suppose." he smiled, scratching Windmere a bit more, shedding some of his initial nerves about possibly endangering them. he laughed quietly, tilting his head to look at her and speak easily.
"You're very pretty up close. I apologize for being so hesitant."
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"All I did was fly. Not once was I out of the cockpit. There were voices over the comm, but I don't know who they belonged to, what they looked like. Just that we were, together, Rogue Squadron." He'd written those words before, but he'd never actually said them out loud, and he was surprised by how it felt. The rightness of the words, yes, but also-
"Rogue Squadron," he said again, more quietly, staring through Windmere. He missed them. Whoever they were, whoever he was - Rogue missed them terribly, and he had to blink rapidly to cover the sudden longing.
Windmere leaned in surprisingly hard, half-closing her eyes like a monstrous cat. All that was missing was a purr.
When he was sure of his voice again, Rogue said, "I swear, she always knows when she's being complimented. Flattery will get you anywhere with her."
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