[Training] [open see] a heart made for taking flight

Sleek, dark, and utterly unlike anything else in the Oerwoud, the shadow of a large bird falls heavy on the treetops, darkening the canopy for a brief moment before moving on. She doesn’t stop, doesn’t dive down into the jungle, knowing full well that she’s likely to be caught in the vines and dense foliage, and she just getting used to new shape. There’s no desire to shift out of it. No need to make herself known - though the clever would surely be able to put two and two together. Eventually the Leap’s white cliffs break through the mists before her and she’s surprised to find a small group of people already gathered on the edge. Draped in bright, flowing silks, there’s no way she could miss them as first one, then another dive off, arms spread wide and colors streaking behind them. Wessex swerves closer, but as soon as she decides to try and intercept one, they shift mid-air and turn their headlong plunges into some kind of beautiful aerial show. So the Wraith changes direction and heads for the cliff, already enthralled with the Attuned performers’ show. WESSEX The Wraith

sleep don't visit, so i choke on sun // and the days blur into one

He’s been traveling a lot. This time he’s not entirely sure how he ended up here in the Oerwoud, but he’d know those trees anywhere. The tangled roots, the vibrant hues of spring coming to life within it, the macaws that call to him and he, in turn, calls to them – little sparks of rainbows dancing across the sky. That is, until, something much larger catches his attention.

And you’ll have to forgive him, Wessex, because he doesn’t know that it’s you. He simply knows it’s something sleek, something fast, something diving toward a cliff that he’s somewhat nearby. The Flood becomes his scaled self, frightening off the friendly macaws as he takes off from a clearing, sleek and black and not quite like the metallic form that Wessex takes but something organic, equally armored.

And without knowing much more, the Attuned chases after the sleek metallic bird much like a cat with a mouse.

and the backs of my eyes hum with things i've never done

SUNJATA

What do you mean, Sunjata? It isn’t blatantly obvious that in a world full of random, unexpected monsters, that the newest ‘one’ isn’t immediately seen as not a monster? Absurd! Ludicrous! Caught up in the performance and simultaneously trying not to get in their way, Wessex doesn’t immediately notice something else streaking towards her until it takes up a lot of her peripheral vision. She shrieks a warning at the dragon first, before she recognizes it. Sunjata. It’s the only thing that keeps her from shooting a razor sharp feather at him. So she dives away, pulling her metal body in close and tight like a bullet, diving down into the mist to obscure herself for a moment. WESSEX The Wraith

sleep don't visit, so i choke on sun // and the days blur into one

That’s exactly the spirit, Wessex!

The dragon trails after the mecha-bird, twisting with the shifts in the winds, a wing battered from the cold, a shriek in the distance from the creature that’s only met with the guttural growl of the Attuned. The bird dives away, and gods does it dive. Wings tucked in, streaking through the sky like it’s parting the air to get through.

Sunjata can’t quite do that, but he can come close. His own wings tuck in, diving after the bird, using his tail as a sort of rudder to try and guide him with his legs all tucked in, and a sharp glimmering electric blue so reminiscent of Nate’s gaze when they’re piercing starts to illuminate the cracks in Sunjata’s plate armored throat.

He mentally counts down before he sends out a spark of lightning - nothing to cause damage, but a warning nonetheless.

and the backs of my eyes hum with things i've never done

SUNJATA

With the dragon behind her, Wessex doesn’t take the time to look back and see where it is. She’s not afraid, exactly, but she knows what Sunjata’s dragon form can do and this bird is basically a flying electricity conductor. Combine that with the backsplash upgrade and he’s going to get a naaaasty bit of pain in return. Believe me when I say she actually doesn’t want to inflict that kind of pain on Nate’s husband. So the Wraith continues her own acrobatics, pulling out the aerial maneuvers like a fighter jet, trying to lose the dragon in the mists or make it seem like she’s just too much of an effort to catch. Landing and turning back to her human form doesn’t occur to the demigod - even though that would be the easiest way to end a game that could go dreadfully wrong. WESSEX The Wraith

sleep don't visit, so i choke on sun // and the days blur into one

He aims his lightning, the glittering glowing static that erupts from his throat without conviction or guidance. He waits a few seconds, but that’s truly the downfall of it, given that when he shoots it out, an arc of a thunderbolt that cracks loudly across the sky, that it misses Wessex completely in the way she’s dove through the mists. He’s lost her temporarily, but that’s alright. He has time, he can wait.

He tries to remain silent if only to give the mechanical bird no idea how close he’s getting, hoping that the way he dives through the dog and mist is close enough to her to worry her even if it doesn’t ward her off. She moves quickly, darting in and out of the wind currents and Sunjata’s doing his best to follow, trying to fit through the space of the mists where the air had separated it out – imagining that he’s getting close.

Though admittedly, it’s hard to track something when you’re airborne. Still, Sunjata does his best to try.

and the backs of my eyes hum with things i've never done

SUNJATA

It’s impossible to miss Sunjata’s lightning. And wow, she thinksrude. However, it does give Wessex the opening to retaliate. But for that - she needs to see her target. Shooting metal feathers willy-nilly through the fog probably isn’t the best idea, just in case they go astray and hit the performers at the Leap or some other innocent creature. There’s gust of movement somewhere to her left, so the Wraith banks and tries to climb, pumping her wings to get into clearer air first. As the bird breaks through the greyness and into the light, her attention is immediately on the blanketing surface below and tries to shoot a metal feather if Sunjata is still following her. WESSEX The Wraith

sleep don't visit, so i choke on sun // and the days blur into one

Again, sorry Wessex, but he absolutely thinks you’re a lost LongNight monster, somehow managing to make it out into the daylight and take to the skies. It doesn’t help that he can’t reach out to you through the Attuned bond. He’s running purely off instinct and instinct tells him you’re a threat. And he treats you like one.

What he doesn’t expect is for the bird to zip through the fog and the clouds like a plane, a machine that moves so fluidly that he wonders if it’s mechanical at all, aside from the truly armored feathers. But it’s a distraction that costs him, watching as the bird banks and a feather launches itself like a bullet out of a wing from her, one that he’s too big and burly to dodge.

It sinks deeply into his wing joint, blood drawn to the surface quickly and spraying behind him with the speed of which he flies. He can’t beat that wing to keep up with her, though, and he knows he has to drop. The lightning glimmers in his throat and he takes a moment before he descends to shoot the lightning out. And whether or not it hits, he doesn’t stick around to find out – instead, aiming for a glide so he doesn’t have to use his wing too much, hoping that he’ll land without issue.

and the backs of my eyes hum with things i've never done

SUNJATA

The lightning finds her - how could it not? What else is there for it to be attracted to? It zings through her body, leaving a sense of burning in her sensors and something hot, hot, hot. She screams - more warning than anything else - knowing that whatever damage it’s done to her will come back to Sunjata twofold. The blacksplash upgrade integrates with this in a way her demigod magics cannot. And knowing that, along with a change in his pursuit, actually sends a flare of worry through her. She can’t partially shift out of this form and anyway, doing so at this height would surely mean she’d have to be scraped off the rocks below. No, Wessex does the only thing she can think of and tries to follow the dragon down, chirping and whistling, crooning to him and a sudden reversal that she hopes screams FRIEND instead of mentally unstable monster. WESSEX The Wraith

sleep don't visit, so i choke on sun // and the days blur into one

He’s in trouble now, and any pride he might feel from the lightning striking the bird as he makes his descent, a metal arrow lodged into his wing joint, is all null and void the second it makes its rebound. The lightning hits Wessex and as Sunjata’s breaking through the clouds and the mist, the damage of that hits him back hard. The dragon roars a cry of pain, wings tucking in as if he can curl in on himself. He can’t, and he certainly can’t shift back into his human form from here. Luckily for him it wasn’t a fatal blow that would have caused him to shift back.

As it stands right now, his heartbeat thunders in his chest, wings flexing to catch him as he starts dropping rapidly, more sounds of pain leaving the Attuned as he lowers and lowers himself further, until there’s a clearing in sight. He breaks the tops of a couple of trees as he aims for it – the trunks snapping under the force of the speed his body makes until he finally can reach the ground, noticing that the metallic bird has followed him, chirping and whistling and he wonders if its praising itself for taking  him down.

- FIN <3

and the backs of my eyes hum with things i've never done

SUNJATA