Set in the original region of Arciel, Legends Rising is a route-inspired, but not strictly route-based, Pokemon roleplay. Pick a faction, pick a class, and strike out into the wild to take on the League, master Contest coordination, research the mysteries of Pokemon and Arciel, and much, much more. Will you be a classic trainer? A criminal? A farmer? Choose your destiny on Legends Rising.
After a bit of run-around, Gabe managed to schedule some time with Senara in order to do some flight practice. The last thing either of them really needed was a panicked flight either to Plum or during an escape if absolutely necessary. So… in this case, this was necessary. He’d picked a spot out on route two where the trees were relatively low and the terrain rather mild— not that he expected to fall but to give the illusion that they might survive if they did. Having texted Senara the exact location, he had gone out there himself right after and started setting up.
A flash of light, and Reptar was freed from his ball. The Charizard shook his head, his shoulders, his arms and wings, and his tail before relaxing again. “As a reminder, we’ll be doing flight training with a passenger today,” Gabe commented. The Charizard side eyed him before giving a slow nod. He’d remembered their little deal regarding this, and it extended to passengers too at the end of the day. “I know you,” Gabe paused. “Wouldn’t throw off my passenger, but I do want to give her a little more security than that…” The Charizard huffed. Gabe smiled a little and raised the riding straps that he had had in his right hand the whole time.
There was an argument and a struggle. While Rep wouldn’t use his claws or fire on Gabe directly, he was not about to let him put on a stupid shoulder strap harness to give anyone the chance to hold onto him like that. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon….” Gabe was muttering as he squirmed climbing and pulling on the back of this stupid not-dragon who was equally trying to pull him off over his shoulder again. What Senara would walk up on was this mess, Reptar’s claws digging into Gabe’s clothes as he was trying to pull him off, and Gabe leaned over one massive Charizard shoulder looking like a fool as he tried to strap this leather harness on.
Post by Senara Spargo on Nov 30, 2019 13:47:47 GMT
Is this absolutely necessary? I mean, it's a foggy day. Maybe we should put it--
Did I remember to wear something appropriate for flying? No? Well, better go back to--
Oh my GOD, woman, stop it!
Senara had never flown before. Well, not on a Pokemon. She'd taken a plane to get to Arciel from Kalos way back when, but that wasn't the same thing as flying on the back of a Pokemon. Pokemon were living creatures that could make mistakes or get angry at you and decide to buck you off at fifty feet above sea-level. Planes didn't do that. She should just take the ferry to Plum, or better yet surf there herself! Yeah! It wasn't like she might need to ride on Gabe's stupid lizard if something went horribly wrong or they'd get arrested...oh, wait, that was absolutely what might happen, wasn't it.
And despite her doubts she had dressed appropriately. Bundled up in warm clothing from her hat (tied on to avoid losing mid-flight) to her felt-lined jeans she wasn't going to be any colder in the air than she was on the ground. The fog was also not as bad as she had anticipated--or perhaps hoped--it to be, so the visibility would be fine. It wasn't like she would be flying this thing on her own, anyway. Gabe had gotten the thing trained, he was going to be steering. She would just need to trust him and it would be...
...well, shit.
She reached the meeting place just in time to see the dumbest looking tango she'd ever seen. And she saw it from atop the back of her own magnificent Pokemon, Chanceux the Steelix. He looked down upon the scene as well, large red eyes taking in the claws and grappling with much more humor than his trainer, who could only see this as a bright red warning sign that this wasn't going to go well. Chanceux let out a rumble of greeting as he lowered down enough for Senara to draw herself from his back with ease, giving him a fond scratch on the back of the head as she walked closer to Gabe and his very grumpy dragon-who-wasn't-a-dragon. She forced a smirk to her lips to look calm.
Totally calm. I'm calm. Aren't you calm? I'm SO calm.
"Should I be worried, if this is how I find you before we're even in the air?" She giggled and glanced to her side to Chanceux's own eye--which was the size of her head. "Aren't you glad you don't need a silly harness. I don't know if there's even ones that would fit you, mon garçon chéri." He chuckled, a deep sound like stones falling down a hill, in response. Her eye returned to Gabe and Reptar. "Gabe, this is Chanceux. Chanceux, le petit abruti. Who's your most agreeable friend here? The other Charlizard, correct?"
It would be Reptar who noticed another presence before Gabe. Thrusting his head and shoulders upwards to view the Steelix and his rider, he inevitably threw Gabe right over his shoulder. The latter yelped grasping the leather harness for support as he was slammed onto the back of the Charizard. Scrambling right after, though, Gabe clicked the harness into place. Oh thank fuck…
Reptar, meanwhile, was now staring awe struck by this giant metal snake before him. Oh… Oh wow. He was so … so… uh… oh wow. Ok. Ok then. This was fine. He was fine. Oh bro. Oh bro bro bro. BRO. The rumble of greeting immediately had him raising a claw and waving in response.
Gabe pulled himself upwards easing to sit on Reptar’s back if not the crevice between his arms and wings that he was used to. He looked sideway sat Senara and offered a weird smile back. “Hah, no, I normally fly bareback, but I don’t want you feeling like you can fall off,” Gabe half-laughed. Rep gave a low growl and squinted hard at Senara as if daring her to say anything about his flight skills.
At the introduction, though, Rep looked back up at Chanceux again. God wow. He was so big. A shake of head was given and the Charizard grunted irritably. Gabe hummed a little in response and greeting, trying to feign chill now that he had gotten his way. “This is Reptar, Rep for short,” he answered. Sliding off the Charizard’s back thereafter, he hit the ground and walked around him to view the Steelix a little closer up. “My … does he dig your mines for you?” he asked. Nope nope nope, he most certainly did not need a hand now.
Post by Senara Spargo on Nov 30, 2019 14:59:59 GMT
Her smirk faltered a little. He flew what? Bareback? That...no, no way would she be doing that ever. She was fine doing that with Chanceux when the worst she was going to fall was maybe ten feet--a broken arm or leg was preferable to death on any day. Had Gabe gotten one just for this flight, then? Just for her? Nah, he probably had it on hand for any time he took people into the air. No way he'd go to the trouble of this just for one begrudging partner in crime. She could still tease him about it. "Well, I'm flattered you're going through the extra effort just for me. But I think your shirt's got some new rips in it."
Chanceux leaned into Gabe as he approached to get a better look at them. While he did have big eyes, them being on opposite sides of his head made it a little hard to see up-close like this. Senara scratched under his jaw with one hand while giving Reptar a little wave in turn. "Hello Rep, thank you for letting us fly with you today!" Just be polite, and maybe he won't throw me into the sea. "And yes, he does. He's one of many Steelix and Onix to help make the tunnels, but he's invaluable when I want to go off-the-grid, so to say. He also makes going too and fro much easier, even if riding top-side isn't as fast as going below, but..." An honest grimace pulled at her features, "Doing that without the proper equipment is a fast-track to a broken finger or six...or a concussion. Not fun."
Chanceux chuckled again, hardly apologetic for his trainer's first foray into riding.
She "pinched" him. Which, given he was still solid as steel, did literally nothing.
A small half-laugh escaped from Gabe at the mention of more holes in his shirt. “Good thing I know how to sew then,” was all he’d answer back with. He didn’t bother to mention how much he mended it and his jacket already. Instead, he focused more on Chanceux slowly petting and starching the steel rock monster as he got in close. The feel of metallic rock was so weirdly cool and calming that he could have gone on petting it probably without another thought.
Rep, meanwhile, managed to pull his eyes away from that big beautiful— snake— just long enough to look down to Senara. Hm. A pearly pink human with one eye. She was nice enough, he supposed. He was still irritated that he had to wear this stupid thing, though.
“I see…” After a moment, Gabe eased back from the Steelix and then looked back at Senara again. “Ready to try off the ground then?” he asked slowly smirking a bit. A small hand gesture was made to Rep who… growled lowly before slowly lowering his font half down to the ground to make getting on easier. “You want to sit in the space between his arm shoulders and wing shoulders. I’ll sit behind you.”
Post by Senara Spargo on Nov 30, 2019 17:50:32 GMT
Senara took a few steps closer to Reptar while Chanceux got scritches from Gabe. Up-close he didn't look too scary. He was still a very large dragon-looking beast, but not anything more frightening than, well, a lot of Dragon type Pokemon of yore. She didn't raise her hand to try to pet him though. Chanceux was a friendly creature--as were a lot of her Pokemon when she thought about it, but his was the most innocent in intention--but the same couldn't be said for every other Pokemon out there. She wouldn't try to pet him unless he moved towards her, which he had not. He was too busy starting at...huh. Does it want to fight him? Maybe it sees him as a challenge because of his size.
"Ready as I will ever be," she muttered, tightening the laces on her hat. Then the rest of Gabe's words caught up with her and she turned to look at him with a furrowed brow. "Behind me? You're still steering, though, right? I don't have to do anything, do I?"
Before she proceeded with things, she reached into the zipped-shut pocket of her coat and pulled out a silver-studded Luxury ball from her bag, extending it to Chanceux. "Come back, Chanceux, you're a little too big to ride along this time." With a nod and a beam of red light, he had returned to his pokeball, which she returned to her pocket and once again closed up tight. The last thing she was doing was losing one of these.
Reptar bent down for her to get on, and she tentatively slid one leg over his back and positioned herself as she'd been told to. She was small enough that she had no problem fitting the space between his shoulders, but her hands hovered in front of her, unsure where exactly to hold on. Not the horns, surely. On the harness itself? Probably? But where? Which loop? Where were Gabe's hands going to be? Ugh, it sure would be nice if her nerves would stop going in circles and her adrenaline could kick in right now.
As Senara turned to him, Gabe grinned a little. “I steer with my legs, he’ll be able to tell whichever way just fine,” he answered. “But the harness will keep you from sliding.” As would he being behind her.
Rep watched as Chanceux was returned and sighed deeply. Goodbye big boy.
As Senara got on, Gabe walked Rep’s front pulling one of the loose straps on the harness itself out and around one of her legs before pulling it tight and locking it in place. He did the same for the other side. Rep growled a little at him, and Gabe smiled. “Don’t give me that…” he answered. The Charizard rolled his eyes.
The question had Gabe looking up at Senara instead. “Grab the strap right here…” he said shifting to where the loop moved to circle part of Rep’s neck. “You don’t have to worry about pulling it too much. It’s not gonna move.” As if to demonstrate, he tugged. The entire harness shifted a little, and Rep growled a little, but otherwise it seemed stationary.
Walking back around, Gabe pulled himself up onto the space right behind Rep’s wings and locked his legs around easily. “Rep, make it smooth,” he ordered leaning forward right up against Senara his hands on his own legs. The Charizard growled something softly but sat upwards causing Gabe to lean back a little.
Wings spread outwards and then bat a couple of times before speeding up. The Charizard immediately jumped, and suddenly they were climbing higher and higher up into the air. It was a bit shaky. Rep wasn’t used to two people onboard, but he made it after a few more rocky beats. Gabe held on almost solely by his legs, leaning forward and practically pushing Senara to do the same.
Hands on the strap. Okay, alright, if felt steady enough and her body didn't feel like it was slipping off Reptar's back. So far, so good. Senara stayed comically still as Gabe moved into the spot behind her with much more ease than she had. When she got her own flying Pokemon, she was going to need to get used to this sort of thing, but for now she was absolutely fine with letting them take the reigns here. Well, metaphorically.
The Charizard beat his wings once--twice--thrice--Senara drew in a deep breath and, for a moment, clenched her eyes shut--and then suddenly the "ground" beneath her was rocketing upwards. Her eyes snapped open just as they took off, and she couldn't help it; a short but shrill shriek left her lips as the force of the take off leaned her backwards. Gabe was there to keep her in place but she still felt like she was going to fall off for just a split second. Oh Arceus. NOPE! She wasn't ready for this! Time-out! Take a break!
We can try again tomorrow or next week or possibly NEVER!!
But the shaky upward climb began to even out, and she was pushed down closer to Reptar's back, which helped her to feel a little less like she was about to fall. Her grip on the loop was so tight she could feel her nails digging into her own palms, but...
The next sound she made wasn't another scream, but a sharp gasp as she looked down. The path below was so far away, but the shore, the fog lifting off the trees, the wide expanse of the sea in the distance...it was gorgeous from up here. Absolutely gorgeous.
"C-c'est beau..."
Almost makes you forget you're on a giant flying lizard with an attitude problem.
The shriek that echoed out of Senara on takeoff forced a sudden sharp laugh out of Gabe. “You ok there???” he yelled, but the wind was moving the wrong direction now, and his words might as well have flown back in his face. It was only as they leveled off again that the wind seemed to steady some. With every beat of Rep’s wings, they moved more fluidly now high above the land below.
A soft breath drew in and out of Gabe too as he looked out beyond Senara’s shoulder. He never did get tired of that view. Someday, he and Liz would climb up through the stratosphere. For now, he was fine with this, though. “Not too bad now is it?” Gabe called out this time pretty audible. Pressing one leg to Rep’s side, he had the Charizard lean a little, shifting and turning left in a wide arch to give a different view. A few Flying type Pokemon below them seemed to take a double take on what was there and flew up higher to avoid being below a damn Charizard of all things.
Senara swallowed, the air up here being cold enough that her throat felt thick and her eyes--well, the one without the patch protecting it--watered a little. Her hands were still holding the loop tight enough to hurt her palms. But as loud as her heartbeat was in her ears she couldn't entirely contribute it to terror; the view was incredible, and as their movements slowly steadied out, she wasn't feeling like she would slip off any second. She even snickered very slightly at the sight of a few shocked Wingull moving away from their location. This was incredible. Absolutely fucking terrifying, but still incredible.
"Not a--AH!" She squeaked as Reptar listed to the side, her legs and hands tightening again in a moment's fear. Being more diagonal than straight-up was disorienting and still scary but it did allow her to see their shadows below. It looked so small from up here.
Everything did. Which was to be expected, and she had seen it on a plane, but...there was something to it being there without walls of steel or glass between her and it. Just open air. That was also still very, very frightening. It brought a funny smile to her lips.
"H-heheh. Yeah. Alright. This is amazing. Par le trio d'aura...wow."
Gabe smiled a little softer than before. “There’s nothing like flying…” he answered. For a few minutes, he and Rep simply flew easing around turns and showing off different angles of the world below— trying to get Senara at least somewhat comfortable with it.
And then.
“Rep, a lil faster,” he called out shifting his weight a bit forward. The Charizard complied, his wings ripping through the air suddenly. The world tore passed in a blur of lights and sounds. They swiped and swayed from one side to another twisting and turning in a few aerial maneuvers Gabe and Rep had worked on before this. They didn’t loop or flip upside down, but it would be a lot less than comfortable. Sharp laughs and yips were escaping from Gabe now as they rode this impromptu rollercoaster.
Senara's whole world usually consisted of darkness. Dark caverns filled with treasure, dark nights when she went walking, closed blinds to prevent the world from seeing into her home and to block the sun; being so high up, so exposed to the world as it was fully alight, fully aglow, was a little blinding. But it was beautiful. She didn't completely relax but she was comfortable to lean this way and that ever so slightly, enough to look around at the earth below as they flew. Alright, maybe she had expected worse from this. If all flying was like this--well, at least all flying with these two--she would be fine.
Then just as she was getting accustomed to it, Gabe opened his big mouth.
"Wha--Faster?!"
She barely managed to bark the word out before the slowly moving scenery below them became little more than rushes of color, bleeding into one another as they suddenly went from a leisurely float to full-on soaring. Senara shrieked again, louder and more sustained than before, and ducked her whole body down so she was pressed completely flat against the Charizard, knuckles white around the loops. She couldn't hear Gabe behind her over her own screams and the wind whipping past them but she just knew--somehow just KNEW--that he was laughing. At her or at the wild ride she had no idea.
It wasn't that Senara didn't like thrills. She was a thief for Arceus' sake, and she stole for the fun of it. If she didn't like risk and didn't enjoy the adrenaline rush then there'd be no point in doing it at all--after all, she could just buy the pretty things she wanted. But one had to understand: Senara was a tiny, lithe little thing. She didn't do well with thrill rides. They whipped her around and left her feeling like she was going to be totally sick.
I'm so glad I didn't eat before this. That was a wise choice.
Oh God, oh Hell, Oh HECK YEAH— Gabe was cackling even as Senara was shrieking. As she bent down clinging to the harness and the Charizard, Gabe was throwing his hands upwards and tightening his legs.
Unfortunately for Gabe, Reptar had a heart, and the shrieking of the woman and her desperate cries to slow had him easing out of the speed breakneck speed and coming back to where he had been at before. A low rumbling growl reverberated through him, though whether it was at Senara or Gabe was questionable then.
A sharp exhausted breath-sigh escaped from Gabe as he realized what was happening. Damn, he ahd kind of expected this, but damn. Slowly, he leaned forward again trying to get in as close to Senara’s ear as he could. “Fun, right?”
Breathe, I gotta breathe, I gotta--gotta--...oh, thank Arceus it's slowing down.
The sound of the wind growing quieter against her ears was her first indication that they were calming down, but she didn't lift her head up--or the rest of her for that matter--still. She wasn't trembling and she wasn't crying but dammit to the void she was tense. Like a tiny ball of springs ready to pop open at any moment. She could still hear the damn laughter as it slowed to a halt as well. Damn bastard. Damn thieving conniving smug--
When his voice and hot breath suddenly hit the helix of her ear, she reacted exactly how somebody sensible might have expected her to: her elbow jerked to to strike Gabe right in his stupid throat, and her hand followed suit, trying to smack him with the back of it.
PbGI64eWp_ [DEX ROLL CAUSE LOL +5]
Senara turned sharply to glare up at them whether or not her hits landed, eye narrow and glaring like a cat that had been dunked in a bath--or maybe one that had been swung around by a child as fast as they could spin. An apt comparison. "CONNARD!!! I knew you were going to do that, but for the love of Yveltal did you HAVE TO?!"
The sharp elbow directly in his throat had Gabe reeling back only for slap to have him looking sideways right after. The sting, both in his neck and against his face, was enough to have a grimace pulled across said face. As she turned to glare at him, he slowly turned his head back and grinned.
A hand slowly reached up to his face, and his legs shifted on Rep for a moment causing the Charizard to tense. “Of course I had to,” Gabe replied with a particular sing-song air to his voice now. “If Rep was speeding away due to a problem, I’d rather you experienced it first….” His hand drew back pushing his whipping ponytail out of the way. “Or if…” He swung one leg over and was sitting side-saddle on the Charizard then. “I decide to say bye—“
And suddenly he was hopping off arms out, body stretched. A vicious snarl escaped from Rep as he immediately whipped up and around in a circle before diving after Gabe. The latter twisted around staring upwards at the Charizard as he dove downwards at another break neck speed before claws cut into his sides and snatched him out of the air again. A sharp breath escaped from Gabe followed by a vicious laugh.
Senara felt quite fulfilled for having landed a hit--two, even!--on Gabe for that stupid little stunt he pulled. Sure he went right back to grinning like a maniac but that stinging may at least keep him from doing something like it again. She huffed and turned away form him, glaring down at the back of Reptar's head while he went on explaining how it was necessary for them to have scared her to death, in case something went wrong! How noble of him. But he kept talking, and she drew in a breath, about to tell him to fuck off--
When she heard what he said and, stomach twisting tight, jerked around to see him go over the side of the Charizard without even a moment's hesitation.
Ah--
Wait--
For a moment--it had to be just a moment, because not a breath later they were moving again--she released the grip and reached out into the open air just behind her, just below her, where he'd been that split second ago. Wait--what? No, come back. Come back!
Don't--
With one hand off the loop, when Reptar suddenly whipped around to dive straight for his madman of a trainer, Senara nearly slipped for real this time. And without Gabe behind her to act as something of a wall between her and the open air, she felt, just for a moment, complete weightlessness. It was not pleasant. Her insides felt like they were trying to lift up out of her skin. But she squeezed as tight as she could to the rope with the hand still on it, eye clenching shut. She had to pull herself in, or she'd--she'd--
No no no no no no no--
She pulled herself back toward the grip, eyes still shut tight, unable to open them until she felt Reptar pull upwards again, and heard their laughter cutting through the silence. When had it been silent? Hadn't the wind been rushing by her so quickly a second ago? She hadn't heard it. She was trembling, curled up tight to Reptar again, and dead silent.
While Senara might have been silent, Reptar certainly wasn’t. He was snarling, barking, and all manner of calling down at his stupid, foolish, hateful trainer who had the gal to scare him like that. He would shake the bones out of his stupid fleshy body if it weren’t for the fact this would also kill him.
Gabe, however, was laughing all the same. A weird almost euphoric high had rushed through him, and not even a Charizard’s death threats could really cool him now. “Sorry, Rep… just figured…” Gabe breathed out another laugh. Reptar snarled in response as he flew lower now back towards the ground at a moderate pace. It was only when Rep’s feet had touched the ground that he immediately dropped Gabe and whipped around to slap him full force with his tail and sent him stumbling through the grass and immediately falling over.
It was only after this that either fully registered Senara again. "Hah... hey... Senara, how'd you like--" Gabe was stumbling weakly around to Reptar's back, and as much as the Charizard didn't want to let him around there, Gabe managed it anyways. As he came around to her, though, he blinked. "...Hey--"
She was aware that they'd landed, and that Reptar was moving in a way that implied more than simply landing, but didn't look up. She stayed tight to his back both with her body and her legs, wrapped up around him as much as she could, shaking. If she had been a little faster, if she had been a little more attentive, if she hadn't been so scared or mad or if she had just pushed those things aside for long enough, she wouldn't have--
Senara dragged a ragged breath through her lips, and forced it out again.
For half a second, half a fucking second--a flicker--it hadn't been him she'd seen falling.
When he'd been still for long enough, Senara began to unwind herself from the grips and from around Reptar, and slowly slink herself over on the farther side from Gabe, keeping her hands up around her face. She let out a very low, quiet mumble: "Je n'avais pas besoin de ça. Je n'ai plus jamais eu besoin de ça." Another breath she was forcing in and out, like her lungs were rebelling against her. Feet on the ground again she took a step away from them both and just continued to breathe. Breathe. Breath. Breathe...
"Vous n'êtes pas nécessaire."
"That--" she finally said, louder, still turned away, "--was cruel to Rep. You're cruel. If he had missed, how do you think he would have felt for the rest of his life? Méchant."
Gabe frowned. He wasn’t sure what Senara was saying, but her tone was… off. Her posture was… off. Everything was off. He shifted a little as she got down and watched as stepped away from both him and Reptar. Rep took the opportunity to slap him over the head again, and Gabe let out a sharp “Atch….” this time rubbing the spot and looking back at the fire lizard.
What came, however, had Gabe freezing. He looked from the back of Senara to Rep who had now looked away from him. Gabe’s lips parted and then closed again. “I trusted him not to miss,” he answered only to get a wing to the face in response. “Atch— Stop that!” He swatted at the Charizard a couple of times but didn’t actually hit him.
Senara turned back around to face Gabe as he got slapped in the face a few more times by a rightfully pissed-off Reptar, and, grateful that it was cold as hell, rubbed at her cheeks a few times to try and blend the red around her eyes with the red on the rest of her face. She would never live it down if he noticed. Never. But he was distracted, so.
"...that's a lot of pressure to put on somebody. And mistakes happen. How would any of your other Pokemon have felt if he'd--if you'd..." I can't say it. She drew in a steadier breath, finding it a lot easier to put all her overflowing thoughts into anger instead of that. "I know we're supposed to have this 'insane reckless abandon' thing going for robbing a goddamn bank but don't you think that's a little too far?"
She gave one last swipe under her eyes before turning all the way back towards them, arms crossed over her chest part-defensive, part-furious. "Besides, if you died, I would have to file the police report, and I don't even know anything but your first name! And how would I get out of looking guilty, huh? 'No I swear, officer, this dumbass with stupid purple hair threw himself off his Charizard and just...died! Oopsie!' Does that sound like it's going to hold up in court? Because it will absolutely NOT hold up in court."
A cold smirk spread over her lips. Smile when you're upset. Just like mama taught you.
"Though I guess it would give me a hundred percent of the earnings if you bit it."
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