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On Monday, Bella arrives at school completely and stably human shaped, with everything she has learned about critters (except for her own species, which she isn't liable to forget) written down as margin notes on a page reminding her to ask Darren about D&D and filler decoy notes about that. She's probably going to have invent an actual cipher alphabet or something eventually but for the time being she thinks this will probably do for casual inspection.
She sits next to Darren in English.
shesepankh
shesepankh
Bella delays a moment in case there is some expectation about interacting with her dishes.
castmyown
Darren takes care of it. This means Bella no longer gets fluffy wing draping. Her dishes are retrieved, rinsed, and into the dishwasher they go.
shesepankh
Awww, no more wingdraping. She follows him outside, delaying in producing her wings (or any other critter parts) till he indicates it's safe.
castmyown
His wings go away when they go outside, for the same reason hers aren't out! He leads her off to the woods away from the road, so no one sees them when they go fullform.
"This place seems good," he says, once they reach a nice quiet spot with a hill.
He is then a peryton!
"This place seems good," he says, once they reach a nice quiet spot with a hill.
He is then a peryton!
shesepankh
Isabella follows suit, turning fullform sphinx. She is noticeably better at being quadrupedal now.
"Okay. Where do I start?"
"Okay. Where do I start?"
castmyown
"Gliding's the best place to start - I'm assuming you've done some kind of practice with your wings to understand how to move them?"
shesepankh
"Yeah, I can move them around, I can even flap 'em if I move the coffee table to make room and put down plenty of paperweights."
castmyown
"Well, then we find a hill for you to try gliding down. Because that's the safest option."
It doesn't take very long to find a hill - finding a hill without a lot of trees on it is more of a problem. They first place they find that is probably suitable is by a stream, so while there aren't any trees - mud's probably going to be in abundance.
It doesn't take very long to find a hill - finding a hill without a lot of trees on it is more of a problem. They first place they find that is probably suitable is by a stream, so while there aren't any trees - mud's probably going to be in abundance.
shesepankh
"I have not experimented with - what happens if I get mud in my fur, and then cease to have fur, then resume having fur?"
shesepankh
"And it will also still be there the next time I have fur? ...I might need instructions on how to take a bath while a winged furry quadruped."
castmyown
"Yeah, it will be. Dad usually hoses us down if it's a problem, sooo... I try not to get covered in mud. I think in Avalons they have like - big bath-tubs for going fullform in so you can have a bath. But we don't have one of those here."
shesepankh
"That's true. I wonder if I will hate getting wet while furry. Cats certainly don't like it. Do you know a less - waterway-influenced hill we could use or is this it and I should just try real hard not to step in a puddle or fall over?"
castmyown
"... Well. Trees," he points out, not unkindly. "I was trying to find a place without lots of trees to fly at and this was about the only thing that wasn't covered in greenery."
shesepankh
"Yeah, fair enough. I suppose if nothing else I can change a little at a time and fit okay in the human-intended tub if I become appallingly filthy. So here we are on this hill, what do I do?"
castmyown
"I'll give you a demonstration, so you can see how my wings work and the general idea of what to do, but lots of this is going to be trial and error."
castmyown
He backs up a bit, then gets a bit of a running start.
Then when he's at the hill, he opens his wings and glides. It's - actually really straight forward, though it's probably harder than it looks. Bella would be wise to note the angle he keeps his wings at.
He glides for a while, then shifts his wings and circles back around, flapping to get the proper height again.
"There you are. I'm not sure how much help it would be if I did it again," he says, once he lands next to her.
(Darren loves flying.)
Then when he's at the hill, he opens his wings and glides. It's - actually really straight forward, though it's probably harder than it looks. Bella would be wise to note the angle he keeps his wings at.
He glides for a while, then shifts his wings and circles back around, flapping to get the proper height again.
"There you are. I'm not sure how much help it would be if I did it again," he says, once he lands next to her.
(Darren loves flying.)
shesepankh
"How did you do the turning part and the landing part? I don't want my stopping procedure to be 'crash into a tree'."
castmyown
"Tilting my wings in a direction to turn, with the wing that is in the direction you're turning in catching more wind. Similarly, to slow down you tilt them both so they catch more air."
shesepankh
"Okay..." Bella thinks through the underlying physics of this, and then points herself down the hill, and goes at - not really a run, but sort of a lope. She catches a little air, promptly decides to quit while she's ahead, brakes as instructed, and touches down with only a little scrambling to stay upright. Then she lopes back up the hill. "I am really enjoying the benefits of extra feet. If one of them spazzes out under me I'm still a perfectly serviceable tripod," she says merrily, turning to retry.