Flying... Well, Kind Of.

[Melanie Arcadia-Blizzard]

Millie stood at the edge of the training field, in the shadows. She liked to practice her barely-existant powers away were no one was likely to notice. Of course, at a place like Hammel, with all kinds of people with super senses running around, it wasn't likely she was going to succeed in her efforts. But she needed to practice.
It would seem that flight would come naturally to a winged person like her. Well... not so much. It was like saying that a bird with wings that had been clipped since birth and only allowed to grow out since a short time ago should be able to fly like, well, like a bird. Her wings had only appeared a few months ago- less, actually. And she could barely fly.
It was only thanks to her best friend, a white falcon named Checker, that she could get off the ground at all. He had taught her to fly, but now that her technique was at least somewhat good, he had little advice for her. She was slightly different than he was, he explained. Her wings didn't work the same way at all. So mostly, Checker just watched her and tried not to sound amused.
Millie was able to communicate with birds; she could tell when he was laughing at her- or laughing to the extent that birds can laugh, anyway. He was doing it right now. She had just fallen back to the ground, and as much as he tried to smother it, his amusement filtered through. Biting her lip in frustration, she spread her wings again. Her feet left the ground, and she had to fight not to panic. It was always disconcerting to leave the earth; but she'd have to get that in check if she ever wanted to fly. Moving her wings, trying to keep a steady rhythm, she hovered just a foot above the ground, scared to go higher. Her bones, in their fragile hollowness, broke easily. And she didn't want to break anything... maybe it was time to land.
She hovered unsteadily, indecisive.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

For once, the weather was half decent. Maybe it was gonna gradually start to improve? Gryphon hoped so, it was difficult to practise when your muscles froze up every two seconds and you're afraid that you'll fall and break something (which was all too easy to do in his case).

Since today was much nicer (and he had a lot to mull over), Gryph went to the rooftops, looking over Hammel. Wearing a shirt with slits cut in the back (it was better than having no top, even if it did restrict his movement slightly), he waited for the wind to be in his favour, and when it was, he ran and jumped, spreading out his feathers to glide around before putting any effort into it.

Gryph looked down on his school. He wondered if anyone was watching him, if anyone could see him. He wouldn't mind if they could, of course. But he wished he could go further, it was difficult to just stay on Hammel grounds when you just wanted to fly and let the wind take you... but it was a desire he had to restrain.

He looked down on the training fields and saw a flicker of something in the shadows. His mind went to it being some Shadow Manipulator, but he caught sight of a few feathers and became interested. Gryph glided gently down, going from horizontal to vertical so he could land on his feet. In front of him stood -well, hovered- a girl, possibly one of the newer students. She seemed to be concentrating pretty hard... one of the next things he noticed was that there was a bird with her... laughing at her, definitely laughing at her. Cheeky bastard bird, learning to fly was damn hard! He would be polite though, because he felt some urge to help the girl, and not insult the bird nearby (pecking really hurt, he would know).

"[Afternoon.]" He tweeted it out in the bird's language, before turning to the girl, "You alright?"

[Melanie Arcadia-Blizzard]

Millie had not heard, or seen, the guy appear. When had this happened? She realized with chagrin that he could have been there since she'd taken off and she wouldn't have noticed. What if he'd been, like, a psycho serial killer axe murderer? She'd probably be dead.

As it was, she fell back to the Earth. It was good she'd only been a foot above the ground. Otherwise she'd probably have broken something (stupid hollow bones!) She managed to land semi gracefully on her feet. Raising her eyes, she peered at the newcomer. The first thing she noticed was that he had wings- just like her! Of course she knew there were others like her at the school. But she'd been afraid to approach any of them. They were all older than her, for the most part, and she'd be surprised of any of them were smaller than she was.

The second thing she noticed, or remembered, really, was that he'd spoken to Checker, and in Checker's language, too. That was impressive. Millie could only understand birds mentally. She didn't actually speak bird language. She wondered if Checker was impressed too. It was hard for her to tell what he was feeling. But it wouldn't have surprised her if he'd been feeling wary of, or even outright hostile towards, the other person, even though said person was winged, and spoke his language. To everyone except her, Checker wasn't excessively friendly. She suspected he had only taken to her because she had promptly given him food. And she was pretty sure he found her amusing.

She realized the newcomer had asked her a question. "Oh, y-yes... I'm fine." She was nervous, and tripped over her words. Why did these older kids have to be so big and scary?! "But I can't seem to fly... at least not well." She blushed. This was one reason she tried not to talk. She just embarrassed herself. Before she knew it she'd probably be pouring out her whole sob story- how her parents had kicked her out for her wings, even though she was barely conscious, and how they never answered her e-mails. Yes, it was probably a good idea for her to just be quiet.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Gryphon's body flinched automatically as the girl fell. He hated seeing others fall, especially when they were almost certain to have a similar condition to him, bone wise. How else would she be able to pick herself up off of the ground? But... the girl seemed alright, so Gryph breathes a sigh of relief.

He tucked his wings behind him, not so much that they would be almost completely away, but enough so they wouldn't be in the way. He regarded the bird in the girl's company with interest, he seemed a little... wild to be a pet. And he didn't have the best attitude, the feathered creature didn't even reply! Cheeky bastard.

His attention was drawn back as the little girl stuttered and stumbled, and he instantly felt bad. He'd practically sneaked up on her after all. "Sorry, I should've made myself more obvious." He told her, giving her a friendly smile. And she spoke of how she couldn't fly; oh didn't Gryph know the feeling. "It's alright," he said, finding her blushing absolutely adorable. His tall height of 6'1" was probably a bit... scary, simply put, so he crouched down so he was at the girl's level. "Flying's difficult, it'll get easier the more you do it." He looked at her wings; they were really pretty. A lot of people at Hammel seemed to have angel wings, if they had wings at all. He found them all truly beautiful.

A thought popped into his mind, and he readjusted his legs so he was a bit more comfortable, "I can try t'help?" He was no trainer, and he didn't want to interfere with any training... but he wanted to help!

[Melanie Arcadia-Blizzard]

He had flinched when she'd fallen. Huh. She'd thought the older kids went around eating the younger kids. Maybe that wasn't true. But this guy was huge. He was probably more than two feet taller than her. Why was she so short? Why did her powers have to appear when she was so little? If they'd waited until she was like sixteen, maybe she wouldn't have been a midget anymore. And maybe she'd be able to focus.

She noted with interest that he treated his wings just like arms or legs, not some foreign, out of place appendage. Would it ever be like that for her? That her wings would seem like part of her and not unwanted baggage? They certainly didn't feel natural to her now. Even when they were fully disappeared, hidden somewhere in her back, she was aware of them, like they were gaint wounds.

She also noticed that he was studying Checker, and that Checker was studying him. She doubted most people would be able to see Checker's interest, but she knew him well. Why hadn't Checker spoken if he was so curious? Finally she realized the bird was not answering him because Checker didn't think his greeting had been respectful enough. Very lightly, she sighed. Checker, she thought to him, just because he didn't fall to the ground bowing and kissing your little talons doesn't mean he was being disrespectful.

As she had been doing this, he had knelt down. Her first thought was that maybe he was going to kiss Checker's talons after all. But no. He was just kneeling so he could see her better. That was kind, and she was grateful. He was so tall, she was convinced his head entered a different time zone when he stood up straight. He was talking, she realized. As she listened she tried to fight down that stupid blush. Checker was making no effort to conceal his amusement at this. He was somewhat smug, too, she realized. He was happily trumpeting the fact that birds were incapable of blushing. She tried to tune Checker out and listen to him. She just caught his assertion that it would get easier. She had heard the practice makes perfect speech from her trainer more times than she wanted to remember, but for some reason, it sounded more genuine coming from this guy. Maybe it was because he'd actually learnt to fly. Maybe once, he'd struggled just as she had.

Wait. Had he just offered to... help?! He had! She tried not to start smiling like an idiot. But this was just what she needed. Her trainer and Checker between them were doing their best to teach her. But neither of them was a winged person like her. What she needed was a person like her, but who knew how to fly. And here one was, offering. She'd be an idiot to refuse. "Oh, absolutely!" She tried not to sound too eager. Well, she'd already failed at that. The hot flush was coming back to her cheeks. She probably seemed like some insane stalker person. "I'd love some help."

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Of course, at any school, there was bound to be at least one or two numb-skulls who thought it was necessary or even 'funny' to taunt the new kids, but a lot of the seniors has a different way of viewing things. It wasn't rare at all to see an older student helping out someone new, showing them around or tutoring them. That was one of the things he liked about Hammel; there were a lot of dick-heads, but most were outnumbered by truly amazing individuals.

Seeing as Gryphon had spent a third of his life with his feathers, he was very much used to them. He'd used them in the past to hit people round the head, to catch their attention, to hug people... he felt lucky to have them. They were very much like any other one of his limbs, and he would prefer to have them out all the time, if that was possible, but the world was judgemental. And usually, there wasn't enough room anywhere for them to be out. It was like spending the whole day with your arms inside your shirt instead of out of some sleeves, very uncomfortable and pretty frustrating, and they cramped like nobody's business if he wasn't careful.

A lot of people wished to be taller, like Gryph. Then they could reach things on high shelves, then they would be able to see over people's heads, then they wouldn't be so short. But having height was a pain; you had to look down to look at people, which killed your neck, and Gryph wasn't unfamiliar with the headache that came from hitting your head on a door frame. No fun.

He glared at the bird with the attitude, holding back a snarky comment. He was a proper bitch, and Gryph knew how to insult birds, he'd been doing it accidentally for ages. But... not now. Maybe when the little girl's back was turned... maybe.

Struggle didn't even begin to describe the stress and annoyance Gryph had to go through that first year. Even though athletic, he had been pretty lazy otherwise, so he had to train up all of his muscles, including the ones around his wings, before he could even get off the ground. He had to applaud the girl for doing that already, but then again, she was probably lighter than he had been, and his wings had still been growing, but all the same, it was impressive.

He grinned widely at the little girl's enthusiasm, it was infectious. It was better she was like this, wanting to learn and wanting to be able to fly, instead of some others who cared next to nothing about their powers. Those people were annoying. "Great!" he smiled, and then thought about what he'd just offered, trying to devise a plan in his head... how to teach someone else to fly... he flapped his wings gently (from happiness, it was kind of automatic), and looked the girl in the eyes, "First off, what's your name?" He'd just been calling her a 'little girl' in his head this whole time, Gryph preferred to put names to faces than just guess.

[Melanie Arcadia-Blizzard]

And he hadn't even tried to eat her yet. Maybe whoever it was that had told her older kids did that had been lying. In hindsight, she probably could have figured that out.

As she looked up at him, she couldn't help but wish she was looking down on him, and that he was the shrimp. Of course there were disadvantages to being tall. It probably hurt your neck to always be looking down (it certainly did hurt to always be looking up!) But it was worse to be small, especially when you were as tiny as Millie. She was so short she sometimes had to sit on her feet to see over the table at meals.

She was relieved to see him smile. Now she could smile too, without seeming creepy. She allowed the big smile she'd been repressing to shine out on her face. She was also highly relieved to find he didn't mind teaching her. She'd worried that he was just being polite. But no, it seemed like he really wanted to help! He seemed a little flustered though. Was she scaring him? Maybe her grin was too intense. She tried to tone it down a little. Checker thought to her that he was probably stalling for time. She had to admit grudgingly that he was right. His explanation made sense more sense than hers. She would probably stall too if she had to teach someone to fly. And besides, the thought of her scaring him was ludicrously funny.

He asked her name. She mentally cursed herself. How rude she had been! She hadn't introduce herself. Then, he hadn't introduced himself, either, but... oh, just be quiet, she thought to herself. "I'm Melanie," she whispered shyly, trying to be loud and confident but finding herself scared again. What if he used this information to find her dorm and return to it with a bunch of friends to beat her up? She tried to beat down these thoughts. If he'd wanted to beat her up, he wouldn't have needed a bunch of friends to do it. Her fear of the older students was silly, but it didn't stop her heart from fluttering like a rabbit's. "But call me Millie," she just remembered to add. And she even remembered to tack on, "what's your name?" She was proud of that, which was kind of sad, considering.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

If you gave him the oppurtunity, Gryph could easily ramble on and on about the disadvantages of being tall, because he was many and he ran into them daily. In fact, if you gave him the chance to ramble about anything he knew enough information about, he would do it practically non-stop. Dancing, photography, flying... among other things. On second thoughts, it was probably better to not give Gryphon the opportunity to talk for too long.

He wasn't scared of the girl! Not at all, not in the slightest. What he was scared of was screwing up or teaching her something she wasn't supposed to learn yet. He was scared of the aspect of failure, and her possible harm as a result. He didn't want to have to explain to somebody that she had a broken leg or something because... well, he wasn't responsible or something. So, in a sense, he was scared, and he was stalling. But he couldn't help it!

"Melanie?" He paused to smile a little wider, "That's a cute name." Gryph said, some honesty shining through. Not that he was dishonest or anything, but... he definitely needed a good self pep talk later, he was bumbling like an idiot in his thoughts. He nodded at her chosen nickname, "Alright, Millie it is." Shorter names were always easier to say, remember, and spell, anyway. "My name's Gryphon." He was interested to see her reaction, he had earned multiple varying ones in the past; some people usually thought he was joking, or that it was some nickname given by his friends, since it so closely collaborated with his wings, but no, he had been born with the name of a mythical being tagged onto his back. "Y'can call me Gryph, if its easier, though." It was one less syllable, but y'know... everyone called him Gryph.

Except Phen. Phen called him Dimple-face. Which he was fine with, but it wasn't exactly public... he was getting off track.

"OK." He took a breath and stood up, looking around for a second. What to do, what to do... start at square one. Gryph turned back to look at Millie, "So, what d'you know so far?" He didn't want to be repeating anything. From what it looked like, she had been trying to take off from standing... which was pretty difficult. Taking off in general was usually the hardest, once you were in the air, it was simpler to do, at least. If that was what she had been doing, though, Gryphon was gonna try and get her to take off running. The extra momentum helped; there was probably some scientific reason why, but he never listened that well in Physics anyway.

[Melanie Arcadia-Blizzard]

Millie felt a blush creep to her cheeks as he complimented her name. Stupid blush. It seemed she was perpetually blushing. Maybe she could get a tattoo, just a skin-colored patch, on her cheeks. Then no one would know she was blushing. Although if her parents ever found out that she had so much as contemplated a tattoo, they'd probably flay her alive. But... what did she care what they thought? She didn't like we're this train of thought was going. She was kind of off topic, too.

Anyway.

She thought his name was cool. "Gryphon? That's really cool!" She genuinely thought it was cool. She'd also always thought gryphons were beautiful, too, but she wasn't going to say that. "Gryph is awesome, too. I wish my name was that cool. Mine sounds like something you'd called a guinea pig, or maybe a rabbit." She frowned, biting her lip. Too much information, or what?

What did she know? She wasn't sure, to be honest. And Checker wasn't helping. He was thinking "nothing" to her, and had even tweeted it aloud, probably for Gryph's benefit. She tried to think daggers at him. "I know some things! Like... um... that you need to flap your wings." Duh. What an enlightened comment that was. "And, uh, you want to... okay. Maybe I don't know very much." She winced. Maybe honesty wasn't such a great policy... And, as if only to spite her, her cheeks colored in an epic blush.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Gryphon felt the plaster below his right thumb tug at his skin; beneath it was his newest tattoo. He now had four tattoos, one there, one on his left wrist, one on his right inner forearm and one on his back. Of course, Millie wouldn't be able to see any of them, he was wearing a long sleeved shirt after all. None of them were offense or anything, mainly inspirational or meaningful, in the least. Mainly to do with flying and birds, so even if the girl did spot them, hopefully she wouldn't detest.

Now it was Gryph's turn to blush, he'd heard that compliment many times but it still got to him. "Thanks." He simply replied, smiling wide. He chuckled at her random remark, it reminded him a little of himself. However, he disagreed, "Nah, Melanie sounds like... sounds like the name of a flower. And Millie sounds like the name of a dove." He grinned awkwardly at his strangely poetic naming ideas. He didn't wanna go back on what he said but... he could stop himself from feeling silly. Hopefully Millie herself felt better.

Gryphon rolled his eyes at the bird, "[Oh, put a can in it!]" He tweeted back, not wanting to be rude in the slightest in front of the little girl. Besides, the chances of her understanding bird language as well was small, although he was interested to know if she communicated with the bitch bird, and how. He crossed his arms, his attention rolling back around to Melanie. What kind if trainer did she have, if she did even know the basics of flying? Well, he didn't actually know of any flying trainers, but still! He shook his head at her confession, "It's alright, I don't suppose you've been here long anyway." If she was as young as he suspected, then that would explain why she knew next to nothing about wings and flight.

Gryphon's next question probably seemed out of the blue, but it was kind of important, "So, how fast d'you think you can run?"

[Melanie Arcadia-Blizzard]

Millie's cheeks were back to their normal color, almost, anyway. And now, after having some time to reflect, she'd decided a tattoo might not be such a hot idea. She'd heard they were really painful and that the chances of her still liking her tattoo in ten years was really low. And what happened if she got a tan? Then she'd just look strange.

She allowed a guilty smile at his blush. Maybe she wasn't the only one with semi-permanent blush. Speaking of blushing, she felt the flush in her cheeks return (unwelcome but not wholly unexpected) as he answered her dumb comment. Personally, she thought Melanie was a lame name for a flower. And that a dove was close enough to a guinea pig. She'd never liked doves. One had pooped on her once. She was glad she wasn't speaking out loud. That information would have been really embarrassing to share. As it was, Checker heard it, and nearly fell off his perch, laughing in the strange way that birds laugh.

Gryph had said something to Checker. She couldn't see what the comment had been (Checker was too busy being offended to tell her what had been said) but she knew it had been somewhat rude. She couldn't bring herself to care. Checker had deserved it. She wished she spoke bird (as in, the out loud kind).

She was glad he hadn't judged her for her lack of knowledge. Checker was there to do that, after all. He hadn't been slow in informing her she was an idiot, and he seemed to have his feathers in a twist about whatever Gryph had said. He tweeted something to her teacher. Millie thought it was something along the lines of "at least I can fly".

Gryph's next question was random. "How fast can I run? Uh... I don't know. Sort of fast, I think?" She was trying to be modest, and also protect herself from embarrassment. It was true that she was fast for her size, but that didn't make her tall. She was certain a guy with a stride like Gryph had could easily out distance her. She just hoped he didn't want a race.

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Gryphon really didn't know what that damn bird was laughing about, but he was just about ready to send him flying. And not the good type of flying. At least he didn't have another snarky comment; Gryph would leave him alone... for now. Another peep out of him and... well, he didn't know what he could do, but he definitely wasn't happy.

Oh, wait... nope, that bird again! He wondered if the tweeting annoyance had a name, but he wouldn't give him the respect of finding out what it was. "[At least I can duct tape your beak shut!]" It was obvious from the sharpness of the noise that the bird was annoying him, but he felt like a demonstration was in order. Soon. He turned back around to Millie when she answered his question, "Good," he smiled, blocking out the bird brain, "the fast y'can run, the easier it'll be." He looked out in front of them... yeah, there was enough room. "Its not as strainin' if you run when you take flight." He explained, "I don't know specifically why, probably somethin' along the lines of aerodynamics, but... just watch." He could both take off standing, and running. So he would show her both.

Gryphon walked a few metres away and began flapping his wings. He slowly built up speed and, after about 30 seconds and angling them correct, he started to float into the air. It was slow, but not weak. He lifted up a few metres and looked down at the girl, continuing to flap for a few seconds to stay on the spot, before letting himself glide down the short distance. "Didja see how hard that was?" He asked. If she agreed, he turned to the open expanse and got himself set, "Now this should seem easier." He flapped his wings once... twice... and then began jogging, then running, then sprinting, opening his wings out fully behind him. After the right amount of time, he pushed his wings down and took off, gliding into the air with a lot more ease and a lot less strain. He came back around and came down in a similar fashion to before. He panted a little, smiling, "See?"

[Melanie Arcadia-Blizzard]

Checker, she thought to him, Stop being rude to Gryph. You're not being nice, and he looks about ready to kick your sorry little feathered butt over the moon. She gave him a warning look along with her command. She might even help Gryph with the kicking if this kept up. If Checker wanted to be anti-social, she couldn't care less. But this was stepping over the line. He wasn't going to go around being obnoxious on her watch. He gave her a resentful look (or at least, a bird version of a resentful look) and flew off, probably to eat her homework. She thought she heard, off in the distance, his distinctive falcon call. Probably it was one last, very likely unprintable comment to Gryph.

She watched Gryph's demonstration wordlessly, nodding when he asked her a question. Really she was kind of angry that she hadn't thought of that herself. In hindsight, it seemed an obvious thing. Running... duh... momentum, that's what it was, not aerodynamics. The speed gotten by running helped to counteract gravity and get you off the ground. It was like a catalyst in a chemical reaction; lowering the activation energy so the reaction could start. Perhaps that was a strange comparison. But anyway, she was eager to try the new method. "Okay, let's try it! I just run and jump and flap my wings, right?"

[Gryphon Matsuoka]

Yeah, you fly away, you bloody- Checker should've been glad he was too far away for Gryph to do anything now, that idiot was literally the worst mannered bird he had ever run into! He understood probably better than most about a bird's pride and self respect, but that was taking it too far. That last comment though - he was glad that Millie didn't seem to understand.

Gryphon wasn't the most... intelligent of creatures, that was one of the main reasons he was being held back a year. One among a few... others that he wasn't going to think about right now. So he had no way of explaining any exact science to the girl; he just knew what worked and how to make it work. He was a little bit interested in the proper theories, but he knew all too well that it wouldn't stick. He hated that, when there were people like Kodi, which were intelligent and they hid it. He couldn't hide his intelligence because he felt like he had none to do so with! It was stressful, to say the least. But something seemed to click with Millie, so he was glad.

"Well, simply put... yes." It wasn't a lie, but there was a kind of technique with it. You had to be going fast enough for the power of the push off to be greater than the force of gravity, you had to have your wings at the right angle in correspondence to the Earth or the push off would be too weak and believe me, you muck up when you're running fast, something will go terribly wrong. But... he didn't know how to explain exactly what to do. It was difficult enough to figure out in the first place, to put that into words? Not happening. He did have a plan though.

The expanse of clear area in front of them was big enough so Millie wouldn't run into anything quickly. Gryph took a deep breath; this was probably gonna go one of two ways, and... well, might as well get it done. "You start runnin', and I'll run along nearby t'help, ok?" He was ready when she was.

[Melanie Arcadia-Blizzard]

Whatever Checker had said, it seemed to have made Gryph angry. Millie had been to far away from Checker, when he said it, to hear it his thoughts what he'd said. But she could tell it had been offensive and rude. She was going to have a serious mental talk with that bird once they were alone. What was his deal? He seemed to have some hate-at-first-sight thing going with poor Gryph.

She wondered if her description of his technique was too simplistic. He had seemed to agree... But she could tell there was something he wasn't saying, that he didn't know how to explain, most likely. Hopefully her seemingly nonexistent instincts would give her the information he hadn't and she wouldn't get hurt. Her bones were hollow and it always made her nervous, when she did something in any way dangerous. But she wasn't going to back out now.

She nodded agreement, focusing on what she wanted to do. Her eyes analyzed the field in front of them, mapping out all the little holes she'd need to avoid, the place that looked like a good take off sight. Sucking in her breath, she took off sprinting. The wind whipped through her hair and she felt the familiar feeling of exhilaration that came from running. She allowed her wings to open, and the wind caressed her feathers too. When she had run a far distance, her mind all of a sudden screamed at her to take off. Maybe she knew, deep down, how to fly after all! She jumped in to the air, heaving down with her wings. She got airborne, and for the first time, she was really flying. The world shrunk below her as she got higher. It was probably unwise fly so high.

Sure enough, it was. She had stopped looked where she was going and flown right into a tree. Her wings automatically locked and she fell, screaming. If not first a conveniently placed branch, she would have ended that way, a grease spot outside the institute. But instead, she felt her hand tear open as a small piece of wood sticking off a branch slashed it. Her hand, moving super fast because of adrenaline, closed around it and she dangled. The ground was much closer, but far enough that a fall would undoubtedly kill her. Her hand was bleeding and in pain, and her arm ached, but she couldn't afford to let go.