He thinks he kind of gets it. He just has to get used to all these new nerve endings (the eyeballs swivel to look at Adrian as he touches the feathers) that makes sense, okay, no big deal.]
...like this?
[and then, in his glorious attempt to move a single wing, it thwacks Adrian across the face. Uh. Too much. Too much move, put some back—]
[Ow. Adrian flinches back as Rosso's wing full-on slaps him across the face, but fortunately it's not with enough force to really hurt him or anything. He does do that cat-thing though where he whaps his paw in the direction of the offending appendage.]
C'mon, clearly someone needs a lesson in safe wing-deployment.
[Adrian comments as he puts a hand at Rosso's back, between said wings, and leads him towards the door. You know, as if Adrian is a wing expert (though maybe he kindof is, at this point).]
Rosso walks beside Adrian with his tail still dragging on the floor behind him. It's so long and heavy... it thunkthunkthunks down their stairs the whole way down. Out in the clearing, though, they have room for wing things.
Also, all the eyes are Perceiving Adrian again as they go. Sorry.]
Rosso looks at Adrian. Rosso's one thousand eyes also look at Adrian. Adrian presumably looks at Rosso. They are engaging in Staring.
Okay. Just stretch out the wings. Flap them a little bit. This makes sense.
Rosso does just that, and boy he has the longest wingspan in existence (it feels like), because when they're outside and he can fully extend these things? Yeah, they pretty much take up the entire radius of the clearing. The secondary wings are a bit smaller, but not by much. They're awkward half-feathered things, all four of them, scaly and feathery and definitely going to be a pain in the ass to care for.
They are also flapping and wiggling about. Rosso figures out pretty quickly it's easy to move them all at the same time, sort of like moving both arms and legs, but independently controlling them is a whole new nervous system battle he is not prepared for.]
Shit's weird. My brain feels like it's in overdrive trying to get these things to move.
[The good news is, having his brain focused on the Task of Making Wing Do The Thing means he can't accidentally set shit on fire? The brain is controlled. Focused.]
[And we'd much rather have Wing Do The Thing than Fire Burning Down shit, so he'll take that as a win. It's actually pretty impressive the level of control Rosso does have, for someone who has never had wings before ever in their lives. Instincts be damned, sometimes these things take time.
Adrian can't help but admit he's a bit...jealous at what he sees though, god damn. Rosso's wings are HUGE. Like, Adrian's wings nearly doubled in wingspan after he became a Manticore, but Rosso's are on a different level entirely. It makes Adrian wonder if that has anything to do with the fact he's a mishmash of two monsters currently, so the genes are just on steroids. He's going to tell himself that so he feels better, yeah-]
Well, they're movin'. That's better than most people can manage. Once you get 'em movin' together, see if you can get up off the ground.
[Rosso does just that. Tries to sync them up... gets everything moving together after a bit. Thinks to himself, oh yeah this will be super easy, I got this, no problem.
You just jump all the time! [no, no he doesn't,] I'm five times lighter than you at least, I should be able to just jump too!
[No, that's not how bones work,
but Rosso is a feral animal and scrabbles up the side of the treehouse with his claws, skrrrtchtchchchch, and gets on the roof.]
You better fucking catch me.
[That is the only warning Adrian gets before Rosso flaps his wings and yeets himself off the roof, gets about like, three seconds of airtime, and then crash-lands into Mothman over here. RIP.]
[Adrian pivots on his heel as Rosso suddenly skitters up the treehouse, trying to position himself in the best place just in case Rosso-
Ah. Yeah. That's about what he expected.
Adrian takes the full brunt of Rosso's weight as he falls down into him, trying his best to lift his arms and catch him in the sense that he doesn't just...fall flat on his ass afterwards. But his current form is new and still a bit ungainly, and thus he ends up doing exactly that with a mini-explosion of feathers.
He ends up laying there on his back on the ground in a tangle of limbs with Rosso before pushing himself up on his elbow, grimacing.]
...yeah, 'bout what I expected. Gonna be doin' a lotta that.
[Comes his reply as he waits for Rosso to stand, getting up after him while pulling a bit of a feather from his own mouth. This is going to be a trend going forward, he'll discover.]
You, meanwhile, have had 'em for all of a couple hours. Maybe you'd have an easier time if you jumped from a higher place. Kinda like how baby birds gotta jump out the nest if they wanna learn how to fly, yaknow? I'd be there to catch you, so it'd be fine.
[They could! And honestly Adrian is tempted. But he doesn't feel like getting shouted at by random humans in Bavan today, so tall trees it is.]
I'll catch you, don't worry. There's a big tree near the middle where I go hunt sometimes. Dunno if it's the biggest, but you'd have a good twenty feet or more before you hit the ground.
[Just those words coming out of your mouth were a terrible thought, anyway!!
Adrian will lead Rosso on deeper into the woods after unruffling his feathers, searching for the tree he'd mentioned. Fortunately it's not too far from home, and soon enough they reach the base of it, where Adrian stands firm.]
A'ight. Climb up there and angle yourself so you'll fall towards where I'm standin'. Don't focus on falling though, focus on flapping your wings.
[The scrabbling of gargoyle claws on tree bark... Rosso is Up in record time, which is funny, because he's also pretty good at getting in trees for a dog as well. Personal record for tree: beaten.
Anyway.
Right. Makes sense. Don't focus on falling, focus on flapping. Easy.
Rosso looks at Adrian, does some mental math, and spreads his wings. Then, he launches himself out of the tree, nearly hits the ground... but he does get a slight lift, and while he's not flying forward, he's definitely flying in place after a moment.
He's low to the ground, though, so it won't be long until he loses the air current and sinks. But! But!!!! He looks so excited, there are stars in his eyes and ope he's going back up the tree bye, let's try again—]
[See! That was barely falling! He eventually dropped back down, but he didn't crash like he did the first time.
As Rosso scrambles back up, Adrian takes it upon himself to climb up a shorter tree so he can takeoff from there, hovering at a sort of midpoint between Rosso and the ground. He can still catch him if he beefs it, but he's closer now, up in the air.]
Glide a couple times, you'll start to get the hang of it when the instincts kick in.
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[Adrian steps around Rosso as he says this, reaching out his claws to carefully take and extend the tip of one of Rosso's aforementioned wings.]
Don't help that you got way too many of 'em.
[He says, as if he isn't more used to having four himself instead of just two.]
It's kinda like...you know how your tail feels by now, yeah? S'like that. You can control your wings pretty much the same way.
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He thinks he kind of gets it. He just has to get used to all these new nerve endings (the eyeballs swivel to look at Adrian as he touches the feathers) that makes sense, okay, no big deal.]
...like this?
[and then, in his glorious attempt to move a single wing, it thwacks Adrian across the face. Uh. Too much. Too much move, put some back—]
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[Ow. Adrian flinches back as Rosso's wing full-on slaps him across the face, but fortunately it's not with enough force to really hurt him or anything. He does do that cat-thing though where he whaps his paw in the direction of the offending appendage.]
Yes, but also no.
[At least he was able to move it.]
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[Takes several feet back... starts trying to flex his wings. Smacks a nearby shelf.
In retrospect—]
I should do this outside before I break something. There's not enough room in here.
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[He says while rubbing his face.]
C'mon, clearly someone needs a lesson in safe wing-deployment.
[Adrian comments as he puts a hand at Rosso's back, between said wings, and leads him towards the door. You know, as if Adrian is a wing expert (though maybe he kindof is, at this point).]
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[It's difficult to be a little guy.
Rosso walks beside Adrian with his tail still dragging on the floor behind him. It's so long and heavy... it thunkthunkthunks down their stairs the whole way down. Out in the clearing, though, they have room for wing things.
Also, all the eyes are Perceiving Adrian again as they go. Sorry.]
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Adrian comes to a stop when Rosso does, reaching out both hands to take his shoulders and turn him around so he's facing him.]
Okay. Do what you did before. Just try stretchin' 'em out first. You can flap 'em a little too if you feel like it.
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Rosso looks at Adrian. Rosso's one thousand eyes also look at Adrian. Adrian presumably looks at Rosso. They are engaging in Staring.
Okay. Just stretch out the wings. Flap them a little bit. This makes sense.
Rosso does just that, and boy he has the longest wingspan in existence (it feels like), because when they're outside and he can fully extend these things? Yeah, they pretty much take up the entire radius of the clearing. The secondary wings are a bit smaller, but not by much. They're awkward half-feathered things, all four of them, scaly and feathery and definitely going to be a pain in the ass to care for.
They are also flapping and wiggling about. Rosso figures out pretty quickly it's easy to move them all at the same time, sort of like moving both arms and legs, but independently controlling them is a whole new nervous system battle he is not prepared for.]
Shit's weird. My brain feels like it's in overdrive trying to get these things to move.
[The good news is, having his brain focused on the Task of Making Wing Do The Thing means he can't accidentally set shit on fire? The brain is controlled. Focused.]
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Adrian can't help but admit he's a bit...jealous at what he sees though, god damn. Rosso's wings are HUGE. Like, Adrian's wings nearly doubled in wingspan after he became a Manticore, but Rosso's are on a different level entirely. It makes Adrian wonder if that has anything to do with the fact he's a mishmash of two monsters currently, so the genes are just on steroids. He's going to tell himself that so he feels better, yeah-]
Well, they're movin'. That's better than most people can manage. Once you get 'em movin' together, see if you can get up off the ground.
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[Rosso does just that. Tries to sync them up... gets everything moving together after a bit. Thinks to himself, oh yeah this will be super easy, I got this, no problem.
Jumps. Flaps.
Does not go into the sky.
?????]
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No. You can't just like...jump. You gotta...
[Shit. How does he explain this.]
Actually, it might be easier if you had somethin' to give you a head start. Yaknow, like somethin' to jump off of. Or out of. A tree?
[Adrian takes off that way all the time, by throwing himself off things. Easier to catch the wind, but also Adrian is just kindof...stupid.]
If you jump outta tree or somethin' I'll catch you if you fuck it up.
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You just jump all the time! [no, no he doesn't,] I'm five times lighter than you at least, I should be able to just jump too!
[No, that's not how bones work,
but Rosso is a feral animal and scrabbles up the side of the treehouse with his claws, skrrrtchtchchchch, and gets on the roof.]
You better fucking catch me.
[That is the only warning Adrian gets before Rosso flaps his wings and yeets himself off the roof, gets about like, three seconds of airtime, and then crash-lands into Mothman over here. RIP.]
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Ah. Yeah. That's about what he expected.
Adrian takes the full brunt of Rosso's weight as he falls down into him, trying his best to lift his arms and catch him in the sense that he doesn't just...fall flat on his ass afterwards. But his current form is new and still a bit ungainly, and thus he ends up doing exactly that with a mini-explosion of feathers.
He ends up laying there on his back on the ground in a tangle of limbs with Rosso before pushing himself up on his elbow, grimacing.]
...yeah, 'bout what I expected. Gonna be doin' a lotta that.
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[Huffs!! Gets up.]
You have only two wings, and I have four, [well five if you count the one over his eye lol] so I should be doing this twice as fast.
[That is NOT how this works]
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[Comes his reply as he waits for Rosso to stand, getting up after him while pulling a bit of a feather from his own mouth. This is going to be a trend going forward, he'll discover.]
You, meanwhile, have had 'em for all of a couple hours. Maybe you'd have an easier time if you jumped from a higher place. Kinda like how baby birds gotta jump out the nest if they wanna learn how to fly, yaknow? I'd be there to catch you, so it'd be fine.
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[Or you idiots could go jump off buildings like lemmings—]
Can you catch me in mid-air? I'm not interested in becoming a splat ball.
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I'll catch you, don't worry. There's a big tree near the middle where I go hunt sometimes. Dunno if it's the biggest, but you'd have a good twenty feet or more before you hit the ground.
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[But on second thought
if his magic is out of control and he summons his scythe...
...
yeah okay best not to think about that one, Adrian will have to catch him. It's all on you babe!]
Lead the way.
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[Just those words coming out of your mouth were a terrible thought, anyway!!
Adrian will lead Rosso on deeper into the woods after unruffling his feathers, searching for the tree he'd mentioned. Fortunately it's not too far from home, and soon enough they reach the base of it, where Adrian stands firm.]
A'ight. Climb up there and angle yourself so you'll fall towards where I'm standin'. Don't focus on falling though, focus on flapping your wings.
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Anyway.
Right. Makes sense. Don't focus on falling, focus on flapping. Easy.
Rosso looks at Adrian, does some mental math, and spreads his wings. Then, he launches himself out of the tree, nearly hits the ground... but he does get a slight lift, and while he's not flying forward, he's definitely flying in place after a moment.
He's low to the ground, though, so it won't be long until he loses the air current and sinks. But! But!!!! He looks so excited, there are stars in his eyes and ope he's going back up the tree bye, let's try again—]
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[See! That was barely falling! He eventually dropped back down, but he didn't crash like he did the first time.
As Rosso scrambles back up, Adrian takes it upon himself to climb up a shorter tree so he can takeoff from there, hovering at a sort of midpoint between Rosso and the ground. He can still catch him if he beefs it, but he's closer now, up in the air.]
Glide a couple times, you'll start to get the hang of it when the instincts kick in.