The Daring Young Man in his Flying Device

The location for today's event is the first floor of the Tower. Those in the know know that inside the Tower is a safe flying area. But the venue is also at a considerable altitude, about ten thousand feet up. The location is the side of a mountain, basically, and the ascent is steep, and requires ropes in many places for steadying oneself and there are a few places where pitons have been driven into the rock and must be used to complete a particularly steep path.

The platform, when it is finally reached, turns out to be molded out of the stone of the mountainside, and is maybe ten feet wide and fifteen feet out from the side of the cliff, supported by stone beneath it angling down to the mountainside. Pitons in the platform anchor a crate holding various repair supplies, and another set of pitons anchor a rope for emergencies.

The hang glider has been pre-staged on the platform, brought up in sections and carefully re-assembled and restrung, and a careful inspection is conducted before declaring it safe to fly. The wingspan is perhaps four meters, with a height of two meters at the peak of the delta, so the wing surface is substantially larger than Spriggan or Imp wings, which may speak to why this is expected to work. It's also dyed a bright reddish orange, which makes it stand out garishly, but should make it easy to follow visually. Schneider issues party invites to everyone assembled, explaining, "We won't be able to talk to the pilot normally, but if we're partied, we should be able to chim."

Lunaris had certainly been to the tower once before, though last time had involved a job and being used as a chew toy by some particularly fervent golems. As such it perhaps wouldn't be a surprise to say she had higher hopes this time, since it was absolutely a visit of pleasure rather than work. Never-the-less, the walk and climb were as treacherous as always something that her many ventures in the wild had thankfully prepared the Cait Sithe for and leaves her only a little out of breath. Now coming into the view of the hang glider was something else entirely, breath catches. It was true,the subject of the meeting had been known, but so actively defying what was possible before left a certain tension in the air. Like perhaps some were waiting for a freak event that'd prevent this flight from concluding.

It's only after that her green eyes alight on Schneider, offering an almost shy wave and flashes a grin as she approaches, ears tentatively lowered just a fraction showing the vague nervousness ever so easily. Despite trying not to. "H-hey!" A simple greeting, not sure whether to talk at such a moment and just accepts the party invite instead, bapping a button floating in the air before adding a generalised, "Good luck," under her breath.

Flight. The final frontier. Going where no fae has been able to go since the wave. He arrives on top of a large earth golem summon, holding onto the back until reaching the top of the platform. The Artificer hops off and gives Terra a wave, as she rumbles back into the earth. He waves his hand and draws a bit of earth up to serve as a place to sit, and gracefully takes a seat. A hand raises to Schneider and to Lunara before swiping for the menu and taking out a bag from the inventory. A bag of peanuts for the peanut gallery. Monch. "Don't die," he offers helpfully. Monch.

Schneider smiles to Lunaris, gives her a thumbs-up for making the climb. He's also catching his breath, just a little, because it was a high climb. "Thanks for coming," he says to Lunaris. "I wasn't sure if anyone was going to come and see. Everyone seems busy all the time, but ..." And then Haru appears with his Earth Golem mount. "Hey!" he calls. "Good to have you!" He sends a party invite to Haru also, so he'll be on comms, then continues, "Anyhow. This is about as high as we can go without wanting extra oxygen," he explains. "Maybe another thousand feet or so, depending on the exact pressure that day, but this is always safe." Though the air -is- a little thin, it's not hazardous.

He's wearing a special leather harness and his peko racing hat tied under his chin, basically fastens himself to the underside of the frame, and after steadying himself he gives the observers a broad, devil-may-care smile, and leaps from the platform.

He knows a bit about flying, and one of the thing he knows is that the amount of lift you get is proportional to your airspeed, so the plummeting initial fall isn't exactly a cause for alarm as much as a buildup of initial velocity. The tricky part is converting the downward velocity into horizontal velocity. This is managed by angling the glider nose down, so falling through the air has the wind going along the wing's surface, then slowly pulling out of the plummeting fall. After a two-second drop, he begins to pull out, and after about three hundred feet, he has achieved horizontal flight, moving quite fast now over the plains below. He chims back, "Ah, this is awesome!"

Lunaris lets out a huff of breath as Schneider talks, using the moment to just rest a little longer. She.. Was not really one of the more physically practiced individuals in ETO. "A-and miss a chance to see someone launch themselves from a tower?" She asks, her lack of breath more obvious with longer sentences, but it doesn't stop a well humored giggle. "Just.. Try and aim for water if you fall, alright? You b-etter not.. Fall." Concern tinging the fox's voice, they might not know Schneider too well, but they had a habit of preferring people to stay alive.

As she hears and spots Haru approaching she gives a small wave in return and a rather uncertain smile at the enchanter, after their last meeting, perhaps not too much of a shock. But leaves it at that, after all they were about to witness something amazing-slash-terrifying, and at that moment she watches as Schneider launches into that gutwrenching drop. The Cait Sithe immediately panics, her tail fluffing up something awful as she peers over the side to see the flight actually going well.. And she lets out a sigh of relief. They certainly didn't know much about flying judging by the rather plain worry, "Y-you're doing amazingly! Keep at it!"

Haru rolls two fingers over his ear out of habit, blocking a howling gust of wind to hear the chim better. "Looking like you are having fun down there," he says with a smile on his face. Watching people really enjoy something is a sight to behold. Really makes all the effort worth it. More a warm sensation for him over one of exhileration. The hand rolls to his monocle, rolling against it like he doing a magnification on a lens to keep track of the moving glider. Curiosity takes him as he marks two spots on the grassy plain, clocking the time it takes to go from one spot for the other. Rough velocity.

His gaze remains on the flight, not further engaging with Lunaris at the time. Haru is so engrossed with it that he forgets to grab some peanuts on the monching.

One moment she's nowhere to be seen, the next- there she is!

Uta is standing there, somewhere between the spectators' area and where the hang glider is, in a menu-crafted nurse's uniform instead of her usual custom getup.

"I have heard someone is attempting daring feats of unprecedented danger and bravery." She raises a syringe with a glint in her eyes. "I am ready to administer first aid," she almost-deadpans.

Wait, since when does first aid involve injections?

    The idea of flight was part of what drew Miyako to the game in the first place. That, and escaping RL and its... /issues/. But flying was something she loved almost as much as sailing and music. So when she heard that someone was testing a flying machine... well, she had to check it out.

    A hang-glider isn't exactly what she was lead to expect when someone said 'flying machine', but it's close enough for first steps! So she's here, she's grinning and watching, and - as the would-be flyer makes his takeoff run - whispering 'the Shephard's Prayer' under her breath.

    And reaching over to ruffle Uta's hair, because Uta is Uta.

Haru stands up slowly and sneaks up behind Uta. Sneak sneak. Sneak sneak. Aura of menacing intent. Glint on the purple monocle lens to compliment the medical glint in the Spriggan's eyes. "You weren't planning on injecting poison into our fair pilot, were you," he says, a hand planting on the Nurse's shoulders. Pat. Pat.

Of course he makes room for Miyako's hair ruffle to diffuse the humerous tension. He moves the bag of peanuts in front of her, "Eat. I hear some people have peanut allergies so it could be incredibly painful and educational." The bag is tilted to Miyako too if she want some.

Gwen had helped a lot with the whole project and she wanted to be here to see this she was also once more clad in her Ashes Nei outfit for this. She was very excited to see how this was going. She looks over to Haru. "...I don't think this era of a world would have that issue." She's still will move to snap up some snacks from the bag but wiull not clean it out. Yes she's swiping peanuts.

Schneider smirks to Lunaris about falling, gesturing to the parachute he wears on his back just in case. "Got that covered." Lunaris might not know about his previous work with parachutes, but Uta can explain to them while getting chimmed up on comms, someone will have sent her the party invite that everyone's using to talk, and the same invite goes to the other arrivals. The sound of additional voices on the party chim has Scheider smiling despite the cold of the air, "Ah, glad you all could join us!" he says, also glad he jumped before Uta could inject him with ... whatever she's injecting people with. And yes, the hang glider is just one proof-of-concept stage before powered flight. Not counting the blimps, of course. Gwen's stitching has proved valuable on several of his flight-related projects.

As Schneider zips along throuh the air, the brightly dyed glider easy to spot, and doing eighty or ninety mph by Haru's estimate, he circles back, banking and dipping so as not to get too far from the cliff, though the turns seem pretty shaky, and he reports by chim, "This thing turns on a dime, I almost went into a spin twice." He's circling back both so everyone can watch him, and so that he doesn't have to drag the hang glider back too far for the next jump. But as he circles and zips along, he seems to have attracted the attention of a pair of Mountain Eagles, typical for the area. These are pretty substantial birds, and they seem to think that this strange new flying thing is lunch. But the strange bird is quite agile and hard to catch, Schneider's success at Peko racing giving him an edge on this mount that seems almost alive, itself.

Alas for the eagles, Schneider has no intention of being made into lunch, and he chants, "Brain, Brain dead. Obey your blood oath, come forth from the land of Avalon. Fire of Gehenna, become a fiery blast and burn everything around us! .... EXODUS!" The ensuing explosion bursts on one eagle, and the blast radius engulfs the other. Both eagles veer off, trailing smoke from still-smoldering feathers, deciding that perhaps this prey is a bit too spicy after all.

"They do..." Uta comments. "But I am not looking to cure anaphylactic shocks. This is about anesthetic. Different thing," she says.

Still, as her stomach clamor to claim its birthright (which would be the last meals that have been skipped), Uta tilts her head a moment with a squint, and grabs a handful of peanuts.

Chew, chew.

The ruffling of hair or the pats do not elicit much in the way of a response, except for Uta keeping an eye on both Miyako and Gwen as she takes some peanuts (checking for allergies?), and, while looking away and probably not actually thinking about it, adjusting her hairpin in the shape of two beamed notes, where the round portion of the note has been replaced by a couple of slimes.

"Not -poison-", she comments after swallowing the first batch of peanuts, and before ingesting the second.

The initial panic reducing, Lunaris finally notices the growing crowd, and figuring it was better than worrying over the flying Schneider she quickly turns to greet each with a wave and a smile, only growing as she spots Miyako amongst the group. It worked as a good distraction after all, especially the terrifying presence of Uta with a needle, from whom she took one measured step away from. Just to make sure she wasn't randomly selected. "Definitely a daring feat of danger and bravery though," she agrees with a solid nod.

With that she's put it off long enough and turns back to watch the death defying flight be beset by eagles, and she clamps a hand over her opposing arm to try and not be so obvious with the whole worrying thing. It really doesn't help when you watch KFC being made infront of you. Perhaps KFE would be more accurate. "Stop burning all the birds! Nature needs those!" Calling over the chimlink, humour covers everything, totally.

Gwen watches as Schneider is getting into trouble she's watrching him and ther's not much she can do. She does have faith in her friend to be able to down at lest thse birds. "What I'd not give for a A-10 to clear the skies here."

She has wings she can't fly, yes Gwen is still unhappy about that.

"These are pretty good."

She'll go to get another handful if she's not stopped.

    Gwen isn't the only one frustrated by useless wings. Miyako is just as grumbly about it. She's complained more than once in the hearing of most. So her eyes are locked on the glider as it swoops through the sky. ... and shoots down a couple of eagles? Well, it's not like they're endangered or anything. Still, the explosion makes her cringe a bit as she thinks about its effect on the fragile, fabric structure of the glider.

    She shades her eyes as the glider gets farther away, her gaze still locked on it, even as she reaches over with her free hand to steal some of Uta's peanuts. Spriggans gonna Spriggan. Munch munch. She watches as she glider soars down towards the ground, and swallows heavily.

    "Come on," she whispers, "Make it work..."

Schneider chims back at Lunaris's comment, "It was them or me!"

Schneider's flight continues, and while he seems quite happy, his long white hair streaming along behind him, a wide grin on his face, from a distance, the flight path seems erratic. He chims back, "So, the glider's holding up fine, but it's pretty hard to control. Trying to circle around rather than fly straight out, but even a bit of bank seems to shoot me off to the side, so I might just make a straight run." That'll mean a much longer walk back, but if that's the cost of /controlled/ flight...

Schneider does manage, finally, to find a fairly flat spot to land, and he comes in, though at the last minute, he decides he's going a bit too fast. He pulls up, then, accidentally doing just the right thing. Pilots call it the flare, ironically, as Schneider seems to flare up down below as he does it, dumping forward velocity in favor of last-minute lift, it both slows his rapid descent and kills much of his forward airspeed. Alas, his flare is not executed very well at all, and he kills way too much forward airspeed, gaining too much altitude, and at the end of the flare he drops very hard onto the grassy plain, the yellow and orange flowers doing little to cushion his landing, though they make it hard to see any blood. The hang glider is pretty much wrecked, which on the bright side means he won't have to drag it back up the cliff.

On the other hand, he's survived the landing, and he chims, "Ah, that was a rush! Need to work on the landing though, I'm at about half HP." Which everyone else can see on the party health meters.

"Ah, I guess the show's over," he says thouhgtfully, limping back to meet people at the base of the cliff. It was about a 3-hour climb to the top, it's probably nearly that to get back down, though the winged folks, who are well-represented in his onservers, could just jump. At this altitude, though, it'd probably be a 3-minute drop.

Haru holds that bag out like the nice and charitable Human that he is. Of course that means lots of hands are on that bag. He has to move another hand around Uta to reach into the bag, as he is standing behind her, and rustles to the bottom of it. "My nuts," he observes, turning the bag upside down, "empty." Crumple Crumple. He puts the remains in his inventory.

It means he has nothing to monch on during the landing. Wince. "Any landing you can walk away from, eh?" he grins. A consideration is given to bringing out his fire birb as a joke but he shakes his head. Rachie would probably actually try to burn things if he did that.

Spriggans gonna Spriggan, and among the things that they are wont to do there is the grumbling about nonfunctional wings. Uta has been pretty vocal about this.
As soon as the eagles approach, her peanuts are outright forgotten, which makes Miyako's job far easier -- conversely, what she attempts to do is get an excited glint in her eyes. "Oh boy oh boy oh boy he's going to crash!" she exclaims, darting up. "He's gonna break his legs! Excellent! A test subject that cannot run away!", she exclaims, and rushes towards Schneider.

The Flare he executes spares Schneider that unpleasant fate, but still, Uta rushes forward. "Everything alright? Nothing broken? Hurt? Let me inspect you medically!"

Gwen laughs a bit at Haru. "You are the one who shared with the class!" She will watch as Schneider and she's now looking to be concerned as she too will race towards him. She also does have healing abilities after all. It's not she could have a captive fashion target, right?

"I regret nothing," Haru informs Gwen with solemn duty to the distribution of snacks. He has to pull his arms out a bit before Uta crashes into them, or worse, makes him get dragged forward while they are on a cliff. Not that he wouldn't have deserved it. It causes him just to unbalance himself forward. "Now for the Boss encounter, Schneider. The birbs were merely a decoy." He motions down to Fashion and Pharma bosses Gwen and Uta. And they deliver. Like a bawss.

As a wingless human he stays up top the cliff for a bit longer. Haru archs a hand from behind to above, like a bowling motion, as sparks fly around him. In a crackling jolt of electricity he summons out a small pixie that is barely notable due to her being an orb of energy with wings. "Alright, Yumi, time to Navigate back down." The Air sprite buzzes around in protest for being summoned as 'descent gear' but it doesnt stop Haru from making his way down the old fashion way.

    "Bag was open, they are therefore communal nuts," Miyako insists, then falls silent as she focuses on Schneider's attempt at a landing. And 'attempt' it is. She watches closely, muttering "pull up, pull up" under her breath, and then he -does-... too far. "Oh cruk," she says, wincing as she watches the glider start to fall, her hands balling into fists. "That's not - " and then the crash comes. "Cruk," she repeats, bumped out of the way by a fast-moving Uta.

    "Medic," she says, in a sarcastically flat monotone.

As Miyako narrates his crashlanding, Schneider reflects that he needs to work a great deal on his airmanship. It's a bit late now to have that realization, of course, but he's at least survived. He says to everyone, in a pained tone, "All of you, thank you for coming. It was an education, let me tell you. Uta, I know you've wanted to fly so badly, and a few of you others, I think ... augh!" As Uta spriggan-drops down next to him and inspects him. He is indeed showing a Lame debuff among others, and of course the HP he's down is pretty substantial (though his regen is working hard on bringing that back up), he can't argue that he's in need of medical aid. This is exactly what Uta was waiting for, it seems, and unable to run, he's not really able to resist. And Gwen, too, those Sylph wings must have taken a beating for falling that distance! They look so delicate!

"I'm ... not gonna die," he says in protest. Saying he's OK would be too much of a stretch. As far as being a fashion target, he is what he is, which is a bit vain, but entirely his own man as far as fashion goes. But he's also a peacock, so while he can't be badgered into wearing anything, he may agree if it's sufficiently cool-looking.

Uta, well, wasn't waiting for anything else!

She soon kicks into action in a blur of bandages, potions, 'does it hurt here' and 'does it hurt if I do this', salves, checking if it's the case to use a splint (another way in which Wisdom of the Forest can be useful!), and any possible medical procedure in-between.

Experimental sedatives might or might not be tried during the various 'does it hurt if I do this' examinations. They might work perhaps a bit too well in some cases... and/or fall short of doing their job in others.

Normally she would be all over the talk of flight, and ranting about how unfair it is that winged races don't get to flight, et cetera (she is not salty, YOU are salty), but today she seems obsessed with something else.

Gwen looks at Uta using experimental items she get concerned so as Uta is busy working Gwen will start chanting. A fairy healing spell trying to help heal Schneider. As this is not experimental healing thankfully so it can't hurt, right? "Hold on we got you."

Schneider is subjected to Very Strange Mood Uta's medical experiments, and gets inspected, detected, injected, neglected, and all kinds of things, and he's thinking dreamily about big family dinners now. Luckily, Gwen is able to throw some pretty normal healing on top of his own healing factor, and he smiles dreamily. "Arshes, thank you," he says, reaching up to try and caress her cheek, but flops back into the wildflowers before he can do anything, staring at the sky as Uta preforms her own medical miracles, such as they are. His HP are doing well now, at least, and his Lame debuff has cleared, and Uta has learned what many of her injections do. Schneider now has a host of /other/ conditions, of course, and lays around in a daze, drooling and staring blankly at the sky.

Gwen is wondering how high Schneider is from whatever Uta gave him. Still she simply plays along.

"Think nothing of it my lord."

She looks to Uta for a moment and just peers, she makes note to not get hurt around Uta while she's like this. "We should get him back to town." If no one will help her she'll pick him up to carry him back!