Cats on a hot tin roof | closed

[armd]

WHO: Abby and Clarisse
WHAT: When you're in Forces and you assume you're being sent out to go stab bad guys but it's actually surprise home improvement #justgirlythings
WHEN: Now-ish
WHERE: A village several miles out of Kirkwall
NOTES: Rude language but aside from that

Well, the day's assignment from their Division Head is in.

Abby shows Clarisse the letter before she remembers and angles it back toward herself, skim-reading aloud. "Sharnwick's chantry took some damage in the last storm. They want a couple of us out there to... basically fix their roof up for them. I guess."

Doesn't exactly sound cool. It's no closing up a rift, or ambushing bandits hiding in bushes along the side of the road. She flips the letter over looking for a catch but that's all it is: a very nicely worded letter, asking Riftwatch for their help and please and thank you, Andraste preserve you. Why they can't do it themselves she has no clue but they'll definitely get brownie points for it. She makes a face at the signature, one Alderman Warrenus, and looks to Clarisse. Shrugs.

"Flint's orders." Bet he was laughing as he signed it off... "Could take horses."

Comments

[laruetheday]

Clarisse has been leaning back, listening and only interjecting once ("Fix their roof?" in utter disgust), but now she straightens up to look Abby in the eye.

"Abby, it'll take all morning riding horses out there." There's a distinct whine in her voice. "By the time we finish the job, then ride back, it'll be way past dark. Plus we'd have to take the ferry both ways."

Abby knows what she's suggesting instead, and Clarisse knows that Abby knows. She's already gearing up for an argument about it.

"If we fly, it'll cut our travel time by half."

[armd]

Abby is not looking back. She is looking critically at the note again, reading it again, carefully. Protest bubbles up in the back of her throat, she wants to whine back. Wants to insist that it's not that far and repairing the roof won't take long, so who cares if they take the horses out? And on the ferry? Which is running even slower these days, as the harbour works its way through repairs??

She sighs suddenly, hard. Says, "Okay."

Fine.

"We should go early tomorrow. Pack some food, take a day?"

[laruetheday]

Oh. That was... so much easier than she thought it'd be.

"Yeah," Clarisse agrees. The earlier they get out there, the more work they can get done before the hottest part of the day.

And there the two of them are, bright and early the following morning, with food and supplies packed and ready to go. Clarisse has gotten Blunder Supreme saddled up, is standing beside her and holding the reins loosely in one hand. With the other, she tosses a strip of bacon to Abby.

"She can be kind of moody." Which is probably why she and Clarisse enjoy each other. "If you feed her first, she'll be better about carrying you."

As if in agreement, or maybe just impatience, Blunder aims an excited and very loud scream in the direction of the food.

[armd]

Yeah, well. You can only dig your heels in so many times and part of Abby wants to keep pushing into this 'I have to go flying because work demands it' situation. Maybe it genuinely is helping with the fear of heights. Maybe if she does it enough times she'll suddenly be able to stomach it. But the myriad of times Owen coaxed her into scaling buildings comes to mind...

Anyway. The stables. Bright and early. Abby, tired, because she psyched herself up so much she found it hard to fall asleep the night before... Bacon, in her hand.

She eyes Blunder warily. The scream makes her flinch.

"Be quiet!" But griffons don't listen like dogs do. They do whatever they want.

Abby supposes if Wags were that big and had wings he'd probably have a demeanor to match, and she holds the end of the bacon out with her fingertips for the griffon to snap up and gulp down, tipping her big, feathery head back in the process.

"Should I know anything before I get on her?" Like, does she love doing loop-de-loops in midair or some shit?

[laruetheday]

It's a little tempting to make something up (something ridiculous but still believable if you squint, like "yeah, she loves to fly toss people and then catch them before they hit the ground") but she doesn't want to send Abby into an anxiety attack before they even get in the air.

Instead Clarisse just says, "Nah," before she grabs the horn of Blunder's saddle and hauls herself up and onto the griffon's back in one quick, easy motion. She reaches out, offering Abby a hand up.

"Come on. It'll be fine." And relatively quick.

[armd]

"I know," Abby grumbles, glaring at her outstretched hand before she takes it, letting Clarisse pull her up. She wipes her sweaty palms on her thighs once she's comfortably astride, feeling the weight of the bird shifting underneath as Blunder gets used to the double load. She's still smacking her beak, tasting the last of the bacon.

It will be fine. The takeoff and landing are the worst part anyway, and Clarisse already knows she's going to cling to her like a limpet.

Reluctantly, she puts her arms around her.

"... Okay. You can tell it to go."

She's ready...

[laruetheday]

"It?" Clarisse scoffs, a little offended on Blunder's behalf.

But she doesn't wait for Abby to defend herself (and has a feeling Abby wouldn't, anyway)—instead she clicks her tongue the same way she'd do to get a horse moving, and Blunder surges upward with shocking speed, leaping from the floor of the aerie to the perch that leads out to open air. There's a brief pause as Blunder positions herself again, and then another quick lunge forward and they're in the air.

Clarisse doesn't whoop or laugh, the way she normally might when that dizzying rush hits, in order to spare Abby's feelings. They surge upward, Blunder buffeting the air with her wings, and then drop into a glide that feels for a few amazing seconds like it might turn into a dive. Clarisse tugs at the reins, steering the griffon until they're pointed in the right direction, heading for the city across the bay and then beyond it. So high up that they don't even cast a shadow on the water below.

"You good?" she calls back once they're steady in the air. Abby's arms are locked around her waist in a vise grip.

[armd]

Abby has her mouth open to do the defending but all she says is, "Ah fuck—" and grips Clarisse very tightly, squeezing the griffon between her knees as she leaps.

People from the old world used to fly in airplanes. They used to get into big, long vehicles and take off, travel huge distances, hour-long flights across the world. Up, in the sky. Abby's seen old, rusted-out planes before and she knows they have windows. But inside they've got seats and little screens for movie-watching, and she imagines you could probably close your eyes and pretend you weren't really up in the air at all, that it would be easy. Especially if you had a book.

It's not like that at all with the griffons. It feels like there's very little keeping her from tipping off aside from her arms around Clarisse's waist; at least she manages to keep from screaming. She muffles a panicky sort of whimper into her shoulder and back instead, cringing to get closer to her, anything to feel anchored.

The swooping and soaring is making her feel sick. She closes her eyes tight and hangs out, and once everything has levelled out enough...

"Yeah..."

She doesn't sound good. She turns her face, cheek pressed on Clarisse's shoulder, and peeks.

Groans, "Fuckkkk." Instantly shuts her eyes again.

It never gets better. Lev lied to her.

[laruetheday]

"Throw up on me and I'm tossing you over the side," Clarisse calls back cheerfully.

(She's lying. But she will be very upset.)

It's hard to feel too bad for Abby up here, mainly because Clarisse is 100% confident that neither of them will fall. She and Blunder haven't been flying together all that long, but in the time they have, Clarisse has never worried that the griffon would let her fall, accidentally or on purpose.

"We'll be there before you know it," she adds. It's true—they're already almost all the way across the bay, and soon they'll be leaving Kirkwall behind. This flight's going to take what should've been a four hour road trip and turn it into a quick forty five minutes. Then they'll have all day to fix that damn roof, and not have to worry about coming back tomorrow.

[armd]

"I'm not gonna!" Hard to argue her case when she won't open her eyes at all, or speak loudly. She's gritting her teeth together and it's making them hurt. She doesn't really think that they're going to fall, though. Clarisse wouldn't take her up here in the first place if she thought there was a chance of that. Right? Right??

It takes her another five minutes of clinging and not saying anything at all before she finally clears her throat, finds some words.

"Ellis has been helping me practice flying."

Fat load of good it's fucking done, but still.

[laruetheday]

So this is Abby flying with help, huh. Clarisse shakes her head, a wry smile on her face. What? Nobody can see it.

"I can help you practice, too," she offers. If Abby wants. "I won't even let Blunder do flips or anything." Not that she really can, without crashing... barrel rolls, though, sure.

After a few moments she adds, "Are your eyes closed?"

[armd]

"Mm. We'll see." Abby thinks she'd like that, actually. Especially if Blunder won't do any flips. The more exposure therapy she gets the quicker she'll get over feeling like this, right. It all helps.

She shifts her weight around a little. "No." They are closed tightly, but how would Clarisse know? If Abby said they were closed she'd just get bullied into taking a peek... "My eyeballs are cold."

Really selling it, here.