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<blockquote data-quote="Dr Midnight" data-source="post: 6886141" data-attributes="member: 69"><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Chapter 4</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"><strong>Flying With Grandpa</strong></p><p></p><p>"Are you ready?"</p><p></p><p>Lily bit her lip. She was bouncing up and down on her heels, and hiding her excitement would have done her no good. "I think so. How does this work?"</p><p></p><p>They stood outside on Murray's lawn. Here, the comfortably-sized mansion's trimmed grass sloped gently over acres down to an autumn wood sparkling with oranges and reds. The sun was shining and the air was brisk and it all felt as real as anything.</p><p></p><p>Murray said "Oh, uh... yeah, I think I have to... hold on." He began speaking to the air and cycling through menus that appeared, glowing and vast in the sky.</p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Menu ></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Options ></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Users ></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Guest physics: basic flight</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Guest commands: enabled</em></p><p></p><p>After fussing through the menu for a moment more, he seemed satisfied and closed the interface. "I think that'll do it. I've never had to do that for anyone else, and I've had the same options enabled for myself since I got here. All right, give it a shot."</p><p></p><p>Lily hopped in place. "Nothing."</p><p></p><p>"It's similar to flexing a muscle." Murray explained. "You've just got to find how to do it and it becomes second nature. Like a baby learning how to grab something. I can't tell you what I think, but if I think the right thing..." he gently lifted from the ground.Lily nodded and thought. Her expression shifted as she tensed different mental and emotional muscles until, quite suddenly, she was in the air. "THERE it is," she gasp-laughed.</p><p></p><p>"You've got it!" Murray yelled. "Now just do that same thing... up."</p><p></p><p>They both slowly lifted upward. Lily squealed in delighted alarm as the lawn and trees began to fall away beneath her. Her arms and legs wobbled and she fought the urge to panic. A giggling fit overtook her.</p><p></p><p>Murray nodded. "Now do that laterally, and off we go." He leaned forward and glided away. Lily licked her lips and put her hands out before her. Shakily she began to move after Murray. The air puffed her hair away from her face and the trees began flowing beneath them.</p><p></p><p>"Ohhhh man," she choked. They were passing over a town now, and a man raking leaves looked up from his lawn and waved. Lily waved back and laughed. "This is incredible!"</p><p></p><p>"You think <em>this</em> is good," Grandpa smirked back at her, "are you ready for some <em>real</em> fun?" He picked up speed. Lily cackled and matched his speed, and then they doubled that. Murray caught up shortly, laughing at her side. The wind screamed and whipped through her hair. "We're doing about two hundred and twenty now, Lilyboo!"</p><p></p><p>"I love it! <em>Faster!</em>" They went faster. They scorched through the air, their jet wash whipping leaves off of nearby trees and kicking up dust clouds. The countryside zoomed away behind them now. Grandpa pointed up to a bank of clouds ahead. They traced an arc up and plunged in and out of the clouds, leaving vapor-threads in their wakes.</p><p></p><p>"Why don't you do this all the time?" she asked.</p><p></p><p>"I used to," he said. "I used to fly everywhere. I dunno. At first it was a real thrill, but in recent years I guess the novelty wore off."</p><p></p><p>"You seem to be having fun now."</p><p></p><p>"Yeah." He grinned. "Yeahhh, this is fun. It's different when you're not alone." He paused in mid-air. "Say, how brave are you?"</p><p></p><p>"Pretty brave. I went on the Cyclone Berserker <em>three times</em> when I was only <em>eleven</em>."</p><p></p><p>"All right, tough guy. Follow me." He darted straight up, and she followed. They climbed to roughly twelve thousand feet and stopped.</p><p></p><p>Lily looked around with wide eyes. Houses were specks from up here. The clouds beneath cast shadows on the ground, looking like puffs of foam floating atop a shallow pool of algae. In the distance was an ocean, stretching off far and blue.</p><p></p><p>Murray said "Okay. Now try this. Turn off your flyin', then turn it back on."</p><p></p><p>Lily did and shrieked as she dropped seven feet. They both burst out laughing. "That's great," she gasped. "Let's just fall."</p><p></p><p>"Let's do it! See you on the splat side." Grandpa tumbled downward. Lily held out her arms, squealed, and dropped. They fell and fell through roaring wind, feeling no control and loving it. The world rushed up at them, growing and growing and growing, and then Grandpa and Lily curved away and flew low over the trees.</p><p></p><p>"This is great!" Lily screamed. "I want to do this forever!"</p><p></p><p>"That's the idea," Murray replied. "Think you'll want to come live in a home like this when you get to be my age?"</p><p></p><p>"That's too far away! Can't I just live here now?"</p><p></p><p>"Oh! Check this out. Follow me." Murray took a snap right-hand turn and Lily was quick to follow. The forest flashed beach-white for a moment, then everything was blue as they passed over the ocean. Murray gestured to her to come with him as he lowered to the water. He touched the surface of the water with his hands and two enormous rooster tails of sea spray rose up in his wake. Lily did the same and a pod of dolphins began swimming with them, jumping from the water and doing their best to keep up with the soaring intruders.</p><p></p><p>Murray slowed. "Okay, this is deep enough. Ready?"</p><p></p><p>Lily blinked her eyes wide open. "Deep enough?"</p><p></p><p>He took her hand. "Do you trust me?"</p><p></p><p>She grinned. "I trust you, Grandpa!"</p><p></p><p>They turned downward and dove into the ocean. The blue faded to black as they rocketed straight down, picking up speed. Now and then a passing fish flashed up at them from the deep and was gone. </p><p></p><p>Murray looked and saw his granddaughter's cheeks and eyes bulging in the dimming light. "You don't need to hold your breath like you're doin', and you can talk. I have some of the default water settings turned off. Sorry, I should have said," he laughed. Lily gulped for breath and whacked him in the arm.</p><p></p><p>"It's spooky down here," Lily said. "What are we doing?"</p><p></p><p>"Just wait."</p><p></p><p>A light began to bloom beneath them, a green-pink gloaming swelling in the black. As they grew closer, the cloud of light began to break up into tiny glowing specks. They descended into a dense cloud of phosphorescent jellyfish that must have been three miles in diameter and, shortly, settled on the floor of the sea.</p><p></p><p>"Wow," Lily said as the jellyfish passed around her like slowly moving pink-purple chinese lanterns.</p><p></p><p>"They're migrating," Grandpa said. "Sometimes I like to come down and find a nice biomass of 'em and just think. Sometimes I bring a book and read by jellyfish-light."</p><p></p><p>"This is amazing. It's so creepy, but in, like, a fun way. Is this... what's it called... Mary Anna's trench?"</p><p></p><p>"Mariana," Murray said, "And no. We can go there, though, if you want. It's far further down, and it gets pretty scary."</p><p></p><p>Lily was silent, thinking of photos of lantern fish she'd seen in a textbook.</p><p></p><p>"There's a citadel down there," he said, "In one of my adventure modules. An ancient stronghold dedicated to a dread sea-god. Filled to the brim with monsters and treasure. We could raid it, you and me."</p><p></p><p>"What, like... as wizards and stuff?"</p><p></p><p>"Wizards, sorcerers, swordsmen, dwarves, elves, yeah! Whatever you want."</p><p></p><p>"Could I be a barbarian?"</p><p></p><p>"Why not? How long do you have before you're due home?" He called forth the time, and it floated amidst the jellyfish.</p><p></p><p>Lily bit her lip. "I should be home in an hour and forty minutes. Is that enough time?"</p><p></p><p>"Not really, but we can save our game and you can come back tomorrow."</p><p></p><p>Her face broke into a wide, beaming smile. "I can?? That'd be the best! Oh man! One thing though. How about we play for an hour... then we go for milkshakes."</p><p></p><p>"That sounds perfect."</p><p></p><p>Lily held up a finger. "One thing, though."</p><p></p><p>"What's that?"</p><p></p><p>"Did you say 'see you on the splat side'?"</p><p></p><p>Murray blinked and realized that he had. The nonsense of it struck them both, and they collapsed in laughter on the sea floor. "We were falling, it seemed to make sense at the time!" Grandpa giggled, holding the heels of his hands to his eyes. His cheeks were bright red. "Splat side."</p><p></p><p>Lily, who'd just been calming down, went into another gale of hysterics and rolled around in the silt.</p><p></p><p>It took a long time, but they collected themselves and flew off toward the Mariana Trench.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dr Midnight, post: 6886141, member: 69"] [CENTER][B]Chapter 4 Flying With Grandpa[/B][/CENTER] "Are you ready?" Lily bit her lip. She was bouncing up and down on her heels, and hiding her excitement would have done her no good. "I think so. How does this work?" They stood outside on Murray's lawn. Here, the comfortably-sized mansion's trimmed grass sloped gently over acres down to an autumn wood sparkling with oranges and reds. The sun was shining and the air was brisk and it all felt as real as anything. Murray said "Oh, uh... yeah, I think I have to... hold on." He began speaking to the air and cycling through menus that appeared, glowing and vast in the sky. [I] Menu > Options > Users > Guest physics: basic flight Guest commands: enabled[/I] After fussing through the menu for a moment more, he seemed satisfied and closed the interface. "I think that'll do it. I've never had to do that for anyone else, and I've had the same options enabled for myself since I got here. All right, give it a shot." Lily hopped in place. "Nothing." "It's similar to flexing a muscle." Murray explained. "You've just got to find how to do it and it becomes second nature. Like a baby learning how to grab something. I can't tell you what I think, but if I think the right thing..." he gently lifted from the ground.Lily nodded and thought. Her expression shifted as she tensed different mental and emotional muscles until, quite suddenly, she was in the air. "THERE it is," she gasp-laughed. "You've got it!" Murray yelled. "Now just do that same thing... up." They both slowly lifted upward. Lily squealed in delighted alarm as the lawn and trees began to fall away beneath her. Her arms and legs wobbled and she fought the urge to panic. A giggling fit overtook her. Murray nodded. "Now do that laterally, and off we go." He leaned forward and glided away. Lily licked her lips and put her hands out before her. Shakily she began to move after Murray. The air puffed her hair away from her face and the trees began flowing beneath them. "Ohhhh man," she choked. They were passing over a town now, and a man raking leaves looked up from his lawn and waved. Lily waved back and laughed. "This is incredible!" "You think [I]this[/I] is good," Grandpa smirked back at her, "are you ready for some [I]real[/I] fun?" He picked up speed. Lily cackled and matched his speed, and then they doubled that. Murray caught up shortly, laughing at her side. The wind screamed and whipped through her hair. "We're doing about two hundred and twenty now, Lilyboo!" "I love it! [I]Faster![/I]" They went faster. They scorched through the air, their jet wash whipping leaves off of nearby trees and kicking up dust clouds. The countryside zoomed away behind them now. Grandpa pointed up to a bank of clouds ahead. They traced an arc up and plunged in and out of the clouds, leaving vapor-threads in their wakes. "Why don't you do this all the time?" she asked. "I used to," he said. "I used to fly everywhere. I dunno. At first it was a real thrill, but in recent years I guess the novelty wore off." "You seem to be having fun now." "Yeah." He grinned. "Yeahhh, this is fun. It's different when you're not alone." He paused in mid-air. "Say, how brave are you?" "Pretty brave. I went on the Cyclone Berserker [I]three times[/I] when I was only [I]eleven[/I]." "All right, tough guy. Follow me." He darted straight up, and she followed. They climbed to roughly twelve thousand feet and stopped. Lily looked around with wide eyes. Houses were specks from up here. The clouds beneath cast shadows on the ground, looking like puffs of foam floating atop a shallow pool of algae. In the distance was an ocean, stretching off far and blue. Murray said "Okay. Now try this. Turn off your flyin', then turn it back on." Lily did and shrieked as she dropped seven feet. They both burst out laughing. "That's great," she gasped. "Let's just fall." "Let's do it! See you on the splat side." Grandpa tumbled downward. Lily held out her arms, squealed, and dropped. They fell and fell through roaring wind, feeling no control and loving it. The world rushed up at them, growing and growing and growing, and then Grandpa and Lily curved away and flew low over the trees. "This is great!" Lily screamed. "I want to do this forever!" "That's the idea," Murray replied. "Think you'll want to come live in a home like this when you get to be my age?" "That's too far away! Can't I just live here now?" "Oh! Check this out. Follow me." Murray took a snap right-hand turn and Lily was quick to follow. The forest flashed beach-white for a moment, then everything was blue as they passed over the ocean. Murray gestured to her to come with him as he lowered to the water. He touched the surface of the water with his hands and two enormous rooster tails of sea spray rose up in his wake. Lily did the same and a pod of dolphins began swimming with them, jumping from the water and doing their best to keep up with the soaring intruders. Murray slowed. "Okay, this is deep enough. Ready?" Lily blinked her eyes wide open. "Deep enough?" He took her hand. "Do you trust me?" She grinned. "I trust you, Grandpa!" They turned downward and dove into the ocean. The blue faded to black as they rocketed straight down, picking up speed. Now and then a passing fish flashed up at them from the deep and was gone. Murray looked and saw his granddaughter's cheeks and eyes bulging in the dimming light. "You don't need to hold your breath like you're doin', and you can talk. I have some of the default water settings turned off. Sorry, I should have said," he laughed. Lily gulped for breath and whacked him in the arm. "It's spooky down here," Lily said. "What are we doing?" "Just wait." A light began to bloom beneath them, a green-pink gloaming swelling in the black. As they grew closer, the cloud of light began to break up into tiny glowing specks. They descended into a dense cloud of phosphorescent jellyfish that must have been three miles in diameter and, shortly, settled on the floor of the sea. "Wow," Lily said as the jellyfish passed around her like slowly moving pink-purple chinese lanterns. "They're migrating," Grandpa said. "Sometimes I like to come down and find a nice biomass of 'em and just think. Sometimes I bring a book and read by jellyfish-light." "This is amazing. It's so creepy, but in, like, a fun way. Is this... what's it called... Mary Anna's trench?" "Mariana," Murray said, "And no. We can go there, though, if you want. It's far further down, and it gets pretty scary." Lily was silent, thinking of photos of lantern fish she'd seen in a textbook. "There's a citadel down there," he said, "In one of my adventure modules. An ancient stronghold dedicated to a dread sea-god. Filled to the brim with monsters and treasure. We could raid it, you and me." "What, like... as wizards and stuff?" "Wizards, sorcerers, swordsmen, dwarves, elves, yeah! Whatever you want." "Could I be a barbarian?" "Why not? How long do you have before you're due home?" He called forth the time, and it floated amidst the jellyfish. Lily bit her lip. "I should be home in an hour and forty minutes. Is that enough time?" "Not really, but we can save our game and you can come back tomorrow." Her face broke into a wide, beaming smile. "I can?? That'd be the best! Oh man! One thing though. How about we play for an hour... then we go for milkshakes." "That sounds perfect." Lily held up a finger. "One thing, though." "What's that?" "Did you say 'see you on the splat side'?" Murray blinked and realized that he had. The nonsense of it struck them both, and they collapsed in laughter on the sea floor. "We were falling, it seemed to make sense at the time!" Grandpa giggled, holding the heels of his hands to his eyes. His cheeks were bright red. "Splat side." Lily, who'd just been calming down, went into another gale of hysterics and rolled around in the silt. It took a long time, but they collected themselves and flew off toward the Mariana Trench. [/QUOTE]
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