shatterverse | (no subject)

Entry tags:

lucy cooper,
tobias

(no subject)

"Full emergency power to the engines," Jake says. "Ram the Blade ship."

Tobias smiles as Jake gives the final order. At least he smiles as much as a hawk can smile. <Rachel,> he says privately, a habit he never broke himself of, even though she hasn't been there to hear him for years. <I'm coming.>

The blinding flash and deafening bang are impressive, but somehow Tobias had expected something even bigger as the two ships collided.

He also isn't expecting to find himself five hundred feet and plummeting toward the trees. Partially because there aren't a lot of trees in space, but mostly because he was pretty sure death wouldn't be so similar to life.

Instincts kick in and his wings snap, pulling him into a glide.

He banks into a thermal to gain some altitude and begins to circle. What in the world just happened?

[Tobias is a red-tailed hawk. And he's currently flying over the Pacific coast somewhere in Oregon.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"In Metropolis."

Bite. Crunch crunch.

"I can show you. Long flight, though."

<How long?> he asks unperturbed. He only needs to know so that he can select the appropriate morph for the distance.

"A few hours for me. For you, more."

Tobias bobs his head and steps off of his branch. He stoops and flares at the last second to land on the ground.

Then he morphs.

It's as ugly a process as it ever was, and going from hawk to seagull is rather grotesque.

<:Whenever you're ready,> he says as he shakes out his wings.

She nods, upshifts, and launches herself into the air with the sack of apples dangling from one claw.

The seagull isn't nearly as agile as the hawk, so it takes a bit more work to get off the ground. But once he gets into the air, Tobias relaxes into the simple gliding position that gives his chosen form so much endurance.

Then he slides into the slipstream Lucy is creating. It hasn't occurred to him to ask her name.

She flies pretty quietly; apparently, whatever Lucy is, she has no thought-speech.

Quiet is fine with Tobias. He's got enough on his mind already.

Like... what he's going to say to Rachel. It's not something he's really thought about before.

Lucy really isn't talkative even when she's physically capable of it, so thoughtful silences suit her just fine.

It's a good thing that the seagull part of Tobias is paying attention to flyng and where they're going since the part of him that's human is completely tied up in trying to figure out how he feels about seeing Rachel again.

That was a complicated question.

Time passes.

Lucy doesn't have to worry about a time limit on her shifts, so if the one-hour mark is approaching, she's not going to notice.

Seagulls don't have the best internal clocks, but Tobias has been doing this long enough to have a rough estimate of when 90 minutes has passed. That's as close as he wants to get to be stuck as a seagull forever.

With a quick burst of speed, he pulls ahead so that Lucy can see him slowly spiral back down to the ground.

She circles without landing.

Once, twice, three times. Big wide sweeps.

It doesn't take long. Just a few minutes to morph back to hawk, and then back to seagull. He would normally spend longer, but he's in a hurry.

It's not long before he launches himself back into the air and rises to Lucy's altitude again.

Not much longer now. Certainly not another ninety minutes.

The city of Metropolis has had a year to fall into disrepair, but it's pretty clear that it was once an impressive sight.

Lucy lands well outside the city, downshifts, and starts eating another apple.

Tobias lands, morphs back to hawk, and shakes out his feathers.

<In the city?>

"Yes."

Nom.

"I don't go into cities."

<I don't usually,> Tobias agrees.

He flares his wings out. <Thank you.>

Then he launches himself into the air.

She sits for a few minutes and watches him go, until she loses him in the haze above the city.

Then she upshifts again, picks up her apples, and flies home.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only