xp_logs | Come fly with me: Tuesday night, eightish

'Snow. Had to come to a place with snow? Why couldn't the bloody school be somewhere warm, like the Greek Islands?' Amanda thought to herself as she left the sanctuary of the house for the moonlit snowscape of the mansion's grounds. Even with several layers (some borrowed from Paige) she shivered as the chill hit her face. Marie was right 'though - it was a perfect night for experiments in flying.

"Fancy meeting you here." Marie's voice came from above and behind. She'd been waiting just above the roof, basking in the moonlight and was now dropping -- almost falling -- toward Amanda.

Longing was plain on Amanda's face as she watched the older girl's gravity-defying grace in the air. "Nice night for it," she replied with a smile.

Marie's feet crunched through the thin crust on the snow as she landed beside Amanda. "So. What do we need to do to get you up there?" The smile on her face and the sparkle in her eyes spoke volumes about her own love of being airborne.

Amanda unwrapped her arms from around the large leather-bound book she had clutched to her chest and flipped it open at the place where a purple post-it note stuck out. "I've done all the preparation stuff already," she said, running her finger down the page. "An' you should be glad - right stink hensbane has. Now apparently I need to go somewhere high up, incant the spell an' step off." A wry grin crossed her face. "Guess that's one way of culling the amateurs. Now you see why I wanted a spotter. Ain't about to step off the roof without a safety net."

Marie laughed at that. "Well, let's go up to the flight training area." She held out her hand. "I'll drive this time."

Amanda closed her spellbook and took the proffered hand. "I got t' thank you for this - I've been wantin' to get this spell right ever since I was a kid - least now I won't break bits tryin'."

"It's too useful a skill not to have if you can manage it," Marie said. "From a purely pragmatic perspective." Her other hand went around Amanda's waist, pulling her in tight to stabilize her, and then their feet were off the ground and they were rising. "It's also too damn fun not to share." She lifted them with increasing speed to above the mansion roof and then they sailed toward an area of the roof that had obviously been modified to serve as a take off and landing area for the fliers in the house. The ride was swift and giddy-making. Marie flew at a fair speed without evident effort and her changes in direction came without warning. She landed them lightly on a raised platform. "How's this?"

"Perfect." With a slightly silly grin on her face from the rush the brief flight had given her, Amanda opened her book again. "Let's hope I get the phrasing right," she muttered, mostly to herself. "Sumerian's a right bastard." Running her finger slowly along the words, she chanted the spell, frowning a little with concentration as she formed the syllables.

Marie took in Amanda's expression with a knowing smile and waited, hands in her pockets, for the other girl to finish her incantation.

"...purdu." Amanda finished the spell, closed the book and put it carefully on the platform. "Right, guess I'm set. Ready t' catch me if I fucked that up?"

"You want me to hold your hand?" Marie's tone was only half-joking as she stepped out into the air and stood on nothing at all, waiting for Amanda. She took her hands out of her pockets to be ready in case she had to move quickly.

Amanda snorted and moved to the edge of the platform. More nervous than she wanted to let on, she made a point of not looking down before stepping out into empty space. She could feel the energy of the spell coursing through her, making her feel lighter than air. All she had to do was focus on that...

For a few brief seconds, the Brit hung suspended in the air, held up by the power of the spell. A broad grin crossed her face. "Fuck me, it work..." she began to say, before the fabric of the spell unravelled and she plunged abruptly down.

Marie dropped faster than Amanda could fall, forcing herself down, and caught Amanda around the waist. Pulling her in, Marie fell a little further, slowing, to absorb some of the inertia and then switched directions, shooting skyward again. She stopped even with the platform, about six feet out, her nose mere inches from Amanda's as she held the girl securely. "Gotcha," she said with a grin.

Amanda's heart slowly stopped pounding, and she pulled a face. "Buggery, blast and fuck," she said. "Thought I had it then."

"Can you do it again? You had it there for a few seconds." Marie brought them back to the platform and set Amanda's feet down carefully. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just tryin' t' get me stomach back t' where it normally goes," Amanda replied with a laugh that came out a bit shakier than she intended. "Who would have thought that old cliche about your life flashin’ before your eyes was right?" She picked up the book again and sat on the platform, balancing it on her knees. "Give me a minute t' work out where I buggered up."

Marie smiled and perched on the railing. "No problem. And yeah, it does, or it seems to -- the life flashing thing, that is. Everything comes flooding up. It's weird."

"'Weird' doesn't begin t' cover it," said Amanda absently, reading through the spell again. "Ah. Got it. Sumerian's tonal, an' I used the wrong emphasis. Rack always said my Sumerian sucked."

"Well, practice makes perfect," Marie assured her. "And it's early yet." She rose and floated off beyond the platform again, waiting as casually as though she were standing four stories below.

"I've got another couple of goes in me," Amanda said, and stood to read the spell again. "Takes a lot of power, this kind of thing."

"I can imagine. Gravity likes its prisoners." Marie dropped a little so as to be able to catch Amanda faster if she needed to do it again.

"Still, if I can get it right, it'll give me something else t' use as an outlet when I get meself too charged up. 'Specially now I've done all I can with Angelo. Still, can't be too long before someone else needs a healin' spell in this place." Amanda's tone is light, but there's a note of cynicism underlying it.

Marie nodded, her face getting serious. "No doubt about that. It'll be good for you to be able to express yourself in something other than glitter, too."

Amanda rolled her eyes, a faint blush coming to her face. "No-one's ever gunna let me live that one down, are they?"

"Never," Marie said with a flash of a grin. "Not until you do something worse, anyway."

"I can only do me humble best," Amanda replied with a grin. "Right, let's try this again." She began to read the spell again, taking care with the pronunciation. When she was done, she moved to the edge of the platform and took a deep breath. "Right."

This time she managed to hover for a whole minute before her concentration broke and she dropped downwards again.

Marie could see the waver that telegraphed the impending fall and was there before Amanda had dropped more than two feet. "Better. It does take a lot of work to make it all go right, or it does for me anyway," she said, taking Amanda back to the platform. "Would it be better if you started out in the air, with me, and I let you go?"

"We could give it a shot." Fatigue brushed the edges of her mind, but Amanda shoved it away, determined to make this work.

"Third time's the charm, right?" Marie waited at the brink, hand outstretched.

Taking the hand, Amanda let Marie take her weight to hover about ten feet away from the side of the mansion. She called up the remaining reserves of power she had left. "Right. Let me go."

Marie let go as carefully as she could so as not to outright drop the girl if she couldn't hold the spell. At last her hands were away but ready to catch Amanda if she fell. Marie found herself holding her breath, not wanting to disturb Amanda's concentration.

'I can do this," Amanda told herself, gritting her teeth as she used the spell to channel her power. She wobbled, dropped a little - Marie reached out automatically to catch her again - but then stabilised and rose back up to the same level as Marie. The effort it took was clearly written on her face, but she managed to hold the spell regardless. "Look, Mum, no hands," she said, grinning.

Marie applauded, smiling. "Congratulations. Welcome to the club."

"Bully for me." Amanda couldn't help the silly grin that crossed her face, despite the tiredness. "Just need t' practice a bit more an' I'll be able t' lift meself, eh?" Then a small thread of red trickled from her nose, and her expression changed. "Bugger."

Marie reached out to take Amanda's weight on herself, knowing that a loss of concentration could drop her at any time. "I think we should call it a night maybe," she said in a neutral tone.

"I'm thinkin' that's a good idea." Amanda wiped the blood away with her sleeve, wincing as the beginnings of what was going to be a truly spectacular headache made themselves known. "Overdid it a tad, I'd say." A ghost of a grin reappeared on her face. "But I did do it, didn't I? With yer help."

"Yeah, you really did. You were flying." A gentle squeeze turned the supportive arm around Amanda into a half-hug. "Let's get you in, though. We can practice again whenever you're ready. Make a flyer out of you in no time."

"Brilliant." Amanda let Marie take her weight as suddenly all of her muscles went limp with fatigue. "I think we should give it a couple of days, tho' - me head's lettin' me know it ain't happy about this." She winced again. "I'm gunna need an aspirin the size of a truck."

"I'll see what we've got. I get some wicked headaches myself." Marie flew them over to collect the spellbook and then brought them down to the door on the roof that led in to the greenhouse and training area. She unlocked it with a key from her pocket and helped Amanda inside then locked it behind them. She didn't offer to put Amanda down until the last step down to the second floor, she just moved carefully and silently through the halls. "You were more graceful than I was learning," she said when she let Amanda's feet touch the floor. "Flew myself right onto my face. And then into a tree."

"Ouch. Guess it came in handy, bein' super strong." Amanda accepted the help without a murmur of protest - she was too tired to bother with the 'strong and independent' persona. "Still, you've had a lot of time t' practice since. You fly like a pro."

Marie laughed quietly. "It was a bit of a steep learning curve." She helped Amanda into her room and sat her down on the bed. "And I wasn't exactly in a learning mood at the time. But it's all worked out now and I'm starting to like it. Now. Something for your head, right? I'll get you some water and something strong but legal."

"Yer a marvel," Amanda said, letting herself topple sideways so her head hit the pillow. Even that soft impact made her head throb and she bit her lip. "I can say I'll be sleepin' like the dead tonight."

Marie shook her head. "They don't sleep much. Try sleeping like the drunk," she advised. "I'll be right back."