15312/He Better Land on His Feet

He Better Land on His Feet
Date of Scene:	04 June 2023
Location:	Roof - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	Terry had his First Flight.  It went… pretty much the way you'd expect.
Cast of Characters:	Kian, Gar Logan, Terry O'Neil

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Kian has posed:
    It's all very non-traditional, but this isn't Kyshán, and technically speaking Kían isn't a proper priest, so the hell with tradition.  Besides, it's not like anything involving Terry could conceivably go normally anyway.
    So first of all, Kían had Terry's red wingset sent over the last time a chocolate delivery was made.  Because confidence is everything and he seems to like the red wings better than the standard gray.
    And they do suit him.  And Kían is almost as bad about red wings as Terry is about green skin.  Look at Raká, after all.
    So it's a small gathering on the roof.  And probably the person that Kían will have the most explaining to do will be to Agatha O'Neil, because Gar and Terry have been through, or seen, this rite already.
    And while he's decreed that the rite will be in English, he's taken his translator off.
    "It's really very simple," he explains breezily, glancing up to the top of the elevator shaft that serves as a High Point for ritual work.  "Terry already knows how to fly wit' the wing set.  Jump off the Tower, collect his pendant from the groun', an' then come back up to the rooftop."  He glances at Gar, then at Terry.  "Preferably without showin' off," he adds with a smirk.

Gar Logan has posed:
    Gar Logan rolls his eyes at the last bit from Kian.  "That's what we do, if you haven't figured it out by now.  When you're special like us, you can't just do things in a normal or boring way.  It has to be more exciting.  That's one of the unwritten rules."
    He remembers his First Flight well.  Nobody really made it clear that it was perfectly acceptable to land before picking up the pendant—or if that was conveyed to him, he just wasn't paying close enough attention.  Either way, his pass at full speed was on the dramatic side, but it worked.
    "The question is, are you ready for this?  It's different for me, because I can be one of his people," he explains to Terry while gesturing toward Kian, also taking in Agatha's presence.  "Because you can do the safe thing and land before you grab it."  There he goes, giving the advice that didn't work on him, just after saying they go for the bigger spectacle because of who and what they are.
    He's also clad in his costume today.  A polite greeting has been offered to Terry's mom, still remembering his more flirty, salacious side while he was Cheshiring at one point.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Agatha looks, quite frankly, puzzled and not exactly at ease with the proceedings.  "Just so that I understand," she says, "you mean to tell me he has to jump from the roof and grab a very small object from the ground while wearing a wing set."  A raised eyebrow.  "Without impacting the ground."
    "Mom, it's not that big of a deal.  I mean, Gar did it," Terry says.  The red wings do look good on him.  Kian was right.
    "Yes, but he has his own wings, Terry."
    "These are as good as mine.  And besides, I beat Kian's ex at their own game, doesn't that show I can fly just as well?"  He crosses his arms over his chest, looking back at his mother.
Agatha frowns a little.  She glances at Gar.  She remembers.  Oh, she remembers all right.  It hasn't been brought up since.  But it will.  Eventually.  When Gar least expects it.  "You will land before picking it up. Right?"
    Terry exhales, and rolls his eyes.  He doesn't answer, just yet.

Kian has posed:
    "Yes, he will," Kían says without looking at Terry.  "Gar had the advantage of pickin' up everythin' I know about flyin' when he copied my form.  An' the wingset iss not as agile as natural wings, although yes, Terry did a lot better wit' it than I would've expected, but that probably has to do wit' havin' such a perfect understandin' of where his body is an' what it's doin' at all times."
    He stops at the base of the ladder up to the elevator housing rooftop, and gives Agatha a very serious look.  "An' I would never ask him to do this, Ágata q'chal," and yes, he just called her 'mom' and not 'Terry's mom', "unless he wanted to, an´ unless I was convince he could do it, an´ unless he was convince he could do it.  As long as he's sensible about it… you know, that isn't as reassurin' as I would like."
    He starts climbing the ladder.  One may not fly up to a High Point.  It is a site to be respected, no matter how ad hoc.  "An' besides, you took to the wingset like a natural, so maybe it runs in the family."

Gar Logan has posed:
    Gar Logan merely crosses his arms and rubs one near the elbow.  They were probably unsure about him doing this, so it's only natural for him to go through similar feelings.  "Just remember, if you feel like you're about to mess up, you can always rabbit hole back up here," he reminds.  There's no shame in failure.  He's experienced it numerous times himself, in various ways great and small.
    "But I think you can do it," he adds.  Rather than using the ladder to get up to the top, he 'cheats' a little and gets to it as a kangaroo.  With them capable of doing around ten feet with a vertical leap, it's an impressive feat to see.  Then, he's back to normal again.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    "I can do this!  I can do this!" Terry says, getting on to the roof on the heels of his mother, who insists on going first.  "Really… I want to get married, and that means me not ending up in the hospital.  I've done my bit of growing up, you know.  I am no longer the guy who makes out with his own doppelganger."
    "You did what?" Agatha asks, looking at her son.
    Right.  He never talked about how he lost his powers.
    "Moving on!" the Cheshire cat says, pulling the veritable track switch to change the course of this particular train.  "I am ready, and I am willing.  And I am able.  That's all that's needed."

Kian has posed:
    Kían can't help but roll his eyes at Gar… well, okay, he did not fly down to the ritual site.  "Before we start," the birdman begins, and takes Terry by the shoulders, "you have to understan', I can not help you if you get into trouble.  If you have any doubts, it iss considered a sign of wisdom an' maturity to heed them.  An' if you really are sure you're ready, promise bot' me an' Gar that you will take it easy an' not do anythin' risky.  This iss not the same as Gar's I'takár.  He had real wings, an' all my instincts."
    He's doing a good job of not obtruding his mind on Terry's, and what does slip through is genuine concern, not fear… and a determination that he does not wish to preside over a failed First Flight—or worse.

Gar Logan has posed:
    "And I'd flown a lot already, besides," Gar reminds Kian.  Whether Akiar, or hawk, or eagle, or vulture, or dove, or falcon, or parrot, or sparrow, or hummingbird, you name it and he's been it.  "But… what he said.  Just be smart."
    He says as an aside to Agatha, "Oh, yeah.  That's how his other self from that screwed-up world got his powers for a little while, but he says it helped him learn better self-control once things were right again.  I haven't seen much of a difference."  Surely he jests, to some extent.  Surely.  "But, the whole 'flirt with yourself in the mirror' thing?  He definitely took it to another level."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Agatha slowly raises an eyebrow and looks at Terry.  "This is interesting.  I hadn't heard of this.  Terry… really, I think we should—"
    Terry gives Kian a deadpan look.  "Love, are we sure I am the one who needs to be thrown off the roof for this to be a successful ceremony?"
    Meaningful look at Gar.  Then back at Kian.  "I promise I won't do anything risky, Kian.  I promise.  I'm not the same cat I was three years ago."

Kian has posed:
    Kían tries not to betray the hint of a smile, but what are you going to do with tenár'yw like these?
    He peers over the edge, to where Terry's medallion sits on a flat rock at the base of the tower.  To Kían, this is not a height of any great concern.  To Terry… he hopes it's not.
    Agatha is guided to a position just behind Terry, hands on his shoulders, almost as if holding him down.
    And then he faces the east… and aborts an instinctive move to take off his kilt.  This is being done Earth style today.
    Arms wide, wings high, he calls out "H'kye h'ka!"  It's the opening for all rites: 'I open my soul.'
    The rite itself is fairly brief, and fairly simple, just a matter of asking one final time if Ter—if First Child is ready and Agatha is willing to allow the attempt, although in practice, the parent never says 'no'.  And then he stumbles over the words, being spoken in English for the first time in ritual.  "Kiáre q'Rh—… nnh.  Lady Kiáre, First Child of Ágata comes before You today to join the skies.  First Child of Ágata, are you sure you are ready to take the Great Charge, to be a guardian of the skies?  And Ágata of clan Oníl, do you consen' to this?"
    All that's really required in response is "I am ready" from First Child, and "I consent" from Agatha.
    Simple enough, so why is the birdman's heart pounding like during his own I'takár?

Gar Logan has posed:
    Somewhere along the way, another pair of wings shows up on the spot atop the high point of the Tower.  Gar has taken his Akiar form, and he touches his own pendant: a copper-green phoenix rising.  It held particular significance for him in the aftermath of the events he's teasing Terry about.
    Though he remains silent, he sends a glance Kian's way and reaches out toward him with both a mental and physical touch, stroking along a few of his feathers.  {He'll be fine, you know. We've all been through much tougher things than this.  I know this is more… unique than mine, though.}
    Aloud, he says to Agatha, "He'll tell you all about it after this is done," no-selling the query about anyone else being thrown off the roof.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Terry sighs quietly to himself, and gives Gar a look.  He knows this is yet another tendril of Karma enforcing itself in his life—that the famous Titan trickster would now become his narc en route to becoming his husband.  His suffering expression is replaced with a combination of a loving gaze and a light smirk.  Then he turns his attention to what is being asked of him.
    "I am ready."  The answer comes without any hesitation.  For ill or good, Terry is extremely confident about his abilities this time.
    Agatha, on the the other hand, takes a few seconds to respond.  The silence probably does Kian's little heart little good, but when she speaks, it is finally to assuage Kian's anxiety.  "I consent."

Kian has posed:
    Kían nods once at Agatha, to remind her to take her hands away, that First Child must stand on his own now.  "Who will we greet on your return?
    He expects 'Téri'… or Terry, anyway.  Although it occurs to him that Terry being Terry, he might well say, "Princess Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca Warner III"—of course he's been shown those cartoons by now—or "Bruce Monkeywrench" for that matter, and all he can think of is that will make a really complicated invitation for their joining service on Kyshán.

Gar Logan has posed:
    Gar Logan returns hands to his sides, growing quiet as the focus sharpens for the others.  He'd be nowhere near fast enough to perform a rescue by the time Vorpal runs into any trouble, should that happen, so the best alternative is to believe all will be well.  Kian may have felt similar apprehension when it was Gar's turn to do this.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Kian would expect that.  He also wouldn't be surprised if Terry took it too far and named himself something outrageous.  It's expected of him, right?
    "Tarik," the Cheshire answers with a slight smile.
    But, to be honest, it is surprising that Kian didn't expect for Terry to look into the etymological meaning of his name (Terrence: Guardian, from the latin 'Terentius') and to do some in-depth research into Kian's mother tongue to find a name that matched its meaning.
    The fact that the resulting name is a little close in sound to 'Terry' is probably just an enormous coincidence and has nothing to do with any predestination, or cosmic forces at work, or mischievous goddesses playing matchmakers.
    Probably.

Kian has posed:
    Kían blinks, clearly not having expected that, and it takes him a moment to regain his bearings.  Mostly, he wants the next words out of his mouth to be the next words in the ritual, rather than, "Do you know what that means?" or "where did you pick that from?".
    It's perfectly suitable for a Titan, as it does mean 'guardian' or 'protector'… although really, there's nothing on the Akiár worlds that's even remotely close to what the Titans do on Earth.
    Full of surprises, the cat is.
    Timed perfectly, the sun is just cresting the horizon as Kían says, "Go, then, First Child of Ágata, and bring us back Tarík."
    And without realizing he's doing it, he holds his breath.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Terry really does try to do it the straightforward way.  The dive off the tower isn't particularly showy, though it is elegant in its own way, perhaps reminding Gar that at one point Terry did mention that he used to be in the swimming team, back in school.  He flies down with the inerrant intention of getting this right and make a good show of it.  It's simple: Touch down and land, grab the pendant, and return.  And be Tarik.
    Simple.
    The problem is that simple things simply do not happen to Terry O'Neil.  For instance, the geese.  The vicious snake-birds that are the bane of motorists, cyclists, hikers, and just about everything on two legs.  Geese, like the wrath of God, are often unexpected, but always secretly dreaded.
    Terry really had no way of knowing that a gaggle of geese had decided to settle down in the lush greenery surrounding the tower, and that they had sought shade under the many bushes.
    Ignorance can be a fatal thing, sometimes.  Like, for example, how Terry is not prepared for the sudden flapping of wings and the panicked takeoffs of the infamous birds when the sun projects an enormous winged shadow over their enclave, clearly signaling the arrival of some uber-predator, some bird of prey of the nightmare realm.  The point is, these birds mean business, and the business is abbreviated as 'GTFO.'
    It's almost catastrophic.  Terry barely misses striking the first goose, and narrowly escapes his wingset impacting something large and feathery.  He swerves, he does quite an impressive roll, in fact, and at one point he has to correct course, and ends up doing an unintentional barrel roll to clear the harbingers of honky perdition coming down his path.  In the process, he gets grazed by several branches, scratched by many others, and at the end of his landing arc he briefly ends up hugging a tree… but by that point he had slowed his descent down to just a gentle glide and he was, by all intents and purposes, fine.  Merely ready to bruise soon.
    The point is, despite that obstacle, he manages quite well.  He has landed, hasn't he?  And now all he needs to do is….
    "FUCK!"
    The pendant is gone.
    He turns around, spying one of the geese, flapping its honky, hissy body with the rest of the gaggle, up and up and away into the sky.  With something golden dangling from its neck.
    "The HELL you will!"
    What follows is… well.
    Terry takes off after the geese with a hell-driven determination to get his claws on them.  The geese, aware that one of those clawsy-clawsy things that can out-slap a snake has somehow managed to get WINGS, have a reaction not unlike humans if they ever learned that spiders have learned how to fly: absolute pandemonium.
    He finally catches up to them, and there is a mid-air confrontation that involves a lot of slapping, a lot of biting from both sides… and profuse cursing.
    Long story short?  Terry does make it back to the top of the tower with the pendant shining in his hand, clutched in a death grip.  There are feathers on him that aren't his.  There is blood on him that is, thanks to the geese.  But, in the end, he touches down on the tower as ritual dictated.
    He opens his mouth, and spits out some goose feathers.

Gar Logan has posed:
    Gar Logan watches all this, managing to do so as if he was the latest inductee into the philosophy of stoicism.
    When it's all said and done and Vorpal is back there with the pendant, amid the aftermath of all that he dealt with, there is only one thing he has to say:
    "Yeah, I pretty much expected exactly that."
    Then he reaches out with arms and Akiar wings for a welcoming embrace.

Kian has posed:
    Kían literally has to bite his tongue to avoid letting his preferred Akiár monosyllable slip… although he makes no move to dive down and help.  This is First Child's job and he has to figure it out for himself.  That's the point of being an adult.
    You would think Kían would be sort of upset about Terry having to beat up a bird in the middle of his own First Flight, but Kían has met Canada geese before, and he's definitely not on their side.  Well, not in this instance anyway.
    When First Child lands, with a somewhat harder-earned pendant than is usually the case, again… well, Kían has to take a moment to get into the correct frame of mind.
    Not entirely successfully.
    "How… why… nnh.  Where is First Child of Ágata?" he asks, motioning Terry to put the pendant on.
    And while he's endeavoring to keep his mind under control, Gar will probably pick up a stray thought that Lady Kiáre better have quite a sense of humor, she's going to need it.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Tarik puts the pendant on with all the ceremony of a conquering hero donning the crown.  But with more feathers and geese bite marks.  "I have left him behind," he answers dutifully.
    Agatha bites her tongue, and it is a good thing nobody here can read her mind, or the comment 'In about half a dozen goose beaks' would flash brightly across everybody's mind.

Kian has posed:
    "Then you will haf his place an' his family," Kían says, trying not to look at Agatha because he's sure she's going to have Questions About This later.  "Presen' yourself to the Gods—" which he will have explained means facing east, then south, then west, then north, then east again, bowing in each direction, "—and to your family."
    He chances a glance at Agatha.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    The feline does as the ritual mandates, facing each cardinal direction, and then the hardest one—his mother.
    Who bears a very eloquent expression and, after doing what is required of her, she certainly gives voice to that expression after surveying what her son looks like, after a close encounter of the Honk kind:
    "I expect the first place of his that he takes will be under the shower."

Kian has posed:
    Kían has to bite his tongue again, and makes a profound effort to hide a smirk.  Mastering himself, he intones the closing of the rite: "Lady Kiáre, we presen' You Your chil' Tarík s'Ágata Oníl t'Káeh.  Keep him and his under Your wing."
    A bit of a pause as he realizes that includes him.
    "We thank You for this day, an' this joinin' of another wing-brother to the skies.  All present, go in peace."  And he too presents himself to the cardinal directions… and after straightening up, exhales heavily.  He doesn't turn around, not quite yet.
    "At least… there was no glitter."  He's already decided that the notification he's going to post back to his world will simply read, <<Tarík s'Ágata Oníl t'Káeh has successfully completed his First Flight.>>
    With absolutely no details beyond that.