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WHO: Miles, Gregor - you're also welcome to catch Miles while he's wandering, but this is primarily for the Vor lords to find each other.
WHERE: Heropa, then De Chima
WHEN: Just previous to start of Pan plot
WHAT: Miles and Gregor find each other - and figure out what those weird headaches are all about.
WARNINGS: Probably none?

[ Miles has had a little time to figure out what's going on here - run into some interesting people in Heropa, figured out his comm, managed to both break his wrist and have it tended to. But what he can't figure out is this damn headache plaguing the back of his mind, like a strange pressure weighing down his thoughts. Nothing in his pamphlet had listed anything that looked like it was remotely close from a power perspective - though, admittedly, the description for each had been hilariously short.

In the end he finds himself pacing aimlessly along one of the boardwalks, not ready to go seek out his assigned dwelling but not much wanting to do anything else either. His mind is a frenetic whirl as digests everything he's heard and learned today.

And beneath it all, a sharp pang of homesickness. ]

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[He laughs briefly into his hand.] Of course we have the 'net, [he agrees.]

Spaceships aren't the pinnacle of comfort, no, but they do all right, and I bet you've never experienced zero-G, have you? Plus... there's nothing like that first view of the planet you just left, getting smaller and smaller behind you.

I've seen pictures of the earth. From space. It looks so exquisite. Like - a jewel.

It has a way of humbling you. Of feeling so very small. But also-- like all of your insurmountable problems must be surmountable after all, because here we are, humanity in space.

Spacers don't feel that anymore. They're born and die there. But I think you'd know what I mean.

Yeah.

[ She smiles down, and gives a half-laugh. ]

You know, I've never even been on an airplane. - How old were you, the first time you were able to go off-planet? The first time you saw it fall behind you.

Edited 2016-01-15 03:57 (UTC)

Not until I was seventeen. I pulled ship duty for my year of mandatory service-- that's where my navigation experience is from. It was... awe-inspiring.

[A beat.]

It's too bad we didn't show up with a drop shuttle, or even just a lightflyer. Miles would be thrilled to take you on a hair-raising, gravity-defying tour of the skies.

I'd really like that.

[ She smiles, just a little shyly, down at her hands. ]

The one time I flew before, I despised it, but that - That sounds very nice. It sounds exciting.

[It's nice not being the shy one in the conversation for once, and it's a little unexpected on Kitty. Gregor is familiar enough with the phenomenon to recognize that it's likely a sign of feeling comfortable around him, and is encouraged that it's mutual.]

I hope you don't think it could be anything but, with Miles piloting. He's allergic to boredom. And... it would be nice to show it to you.

[ He's quite right about that. Just like imperious reserve is Gregor's mask, chatty good spirits are Kitty's. Which isn't to say that she's secretly some shy, retiring homebody or something of the sort - far from it. But she's a serious young woman at her core. She's passionate and feels things very deeply, and she's often quite vulnerable. Especially with the people she likes. The best way to hide that depth of passion and that vulnerability, as a matter of course, is to cover it up under shiny surfaces, effusiveness and bubbliness and intense positive energy. The fact that she's letting down that slightly manic cheer - it's a sign of trust. ]

Could he fly the sorts of things we've got here, on Earth? Helicopters and airplanes and the like.

[In some ways they really are similar. It entirely suits Gregor to let all of this developing trust go unstated, too.]

... I'm not sure. The mechanics of it are the same, but the controls are likely quite different. Though I've no doubt if he decided he wanted to learn, he'd crush the whole thing before you knew what was happening.

[ She's very pleased by this assessment. ]

He's that much of a genius, is he.

Partly that, and partly... [He flicks his fingers.] The harder it is, the more he wants to prove he can do it.

[ A laugh. ]

Ah. Yeah. People like that. They're both marvelous and rather irritating, aren't they?

[ She says that, completely unaware that she is one of those people herself. That she has a problem. ]

[Gregor shrugs.]

Occasionally it's an annoyance, but it's never bothered me as much as it seems to bother everyone else. [Miles can be a bit of a pill for some people, though admittedly Gregor gets exempt from his more annoying insubordinate tendencies by virtue of the fact that he is, well, the emperor.] Maybe because I understand what it's like to feel the need to prove yourself.