isleofavalon | [closed] stone sour

🧙 WHO: Kirishima, Ururaka, Yaoyorozu
⚔️️ WHAT: Assistance Mission May; "Holo, Goodbye"
🕒 WHEN: May
🗺️ WHERE: Starting up the holo river
⚠️ WARNINGS: Musings on death and mortality that'd be unexpected for teenagers, I'd guess?

"Head up to the river just north-west of Camelot's farmland. This time of year, the river will sparkle with holographic shine. Prismatic rainbows dance across the surface of the water, and fairies of all kinds enjoy drinking and celebrating. This comes from a special spirit that goes around purifying stones that gather natural energy throughout the year. The spirit spends most of the year in Elphame and the Mountains, so it only spends one week a year near Camelot City. Unfortunately, my grandmother is ailing this year and is unable to come. I have to take care of her. If you could get one of the holographic rocks and bring it to us before the holo wears off so she can see them one last time, we'll be eternally grateful."

Altogether they'd been cordial. Hero training had taught them phrases to say during a crisis, but this was different. They - the teens and pro heroes of Tomorrow in their world - were supposed to be the people who preserved life as much as they could, worked with emergencies in progress, were supposed to be reassuring. Their client this mission was not... not to be reassured. What was happening now was a long time coming, not a sudden trauma. She seemed so certain of her grandmother's end to the point comforting otherwise seemed so silly.

And so when Kirishima meets his allies outside of the little home they've visited, he feels a bit shaken. It feels wrong to smile. He clears his throat instead.

"So um... it seems pretty straight-forward?" Kirishima ventures, awkwardly inching a hand up towards his nape to rub. "Any tricks or, um, enchantments you two know of?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's frankly a bit jarring to be so ungrounded and Kirishima doesn't know how Ochako just did this back at home all the time. Fortunately, he's got a strong stomach and hadn't eaten too big of a breakfast that morning. After a swallow, he gives Ururaka a thumbs-up.

"All good!" He'll be damned if he holds up anything.

The trees flicker by and Kirishima just pretends this is like one of those rollercoasters at the amusement parks where you're strapped in and held in a flying position to simulate a flying hero's Quirk. It definitely helps. He presses his arms alongside his body and puts his legs together like he's becoming a human missile. After a moment, the joy of flying and the speed outruns the fear of death and Eijiro is simply enjoying himself as they all go along. He allows one of his hands to reach out and gently skim the treetops, grinning with the simple pleasure the texture brings despite the slight sting. Depending on how long Ochako can hold this for them, they may well soon break upon the iridescent marvel of the river that is their destination.

Momo gives Ochako an encouraging nod, and off they go! She has some experience in being airborne from practicing with her wind magic, but it's a very different feeling than the weightlessness of Ochako's technique. She keeps her mind focused on the path ahead as they follow the beam of light from the Wayfinder spell towards their target. Momo glances over and sees the careful way Kirishima is holding his body, and decides to streamline her legs together the same way, keeping her open spellbook held close to her chest.

After a few minutes in the air, Momo sees a shining light in the distance, flickering on the horizon. She gasps, excited, and points it out to her friends. "There, look! Do you see it?"

It's not exactly difficult to see that Kirishima is a bit more nervous than Momo is, thus Ochako sticks closer to him just to give him so peace of mind and maybe a bit of comfort as well. It must be so difficult for him...he's always been a rock-solid person (literally and figuratively) with his quirk, that not having it now must be rough. Ochako herself still struggles with the loss of her quirk as well, even with the kinetic magic mimicking it a lot, too. Kirishima doesn't...really have that, though, does he? She smiles at him from their position in the air, it getting softer the more he relaxes and actually starts to enjoy himself.

Honestly, flying for the first time wasn't easy for her, either. It was scary being up in the air without knowing how to get down, getting sick after, and floating things up only for them to come crashing down and break minutes later when she lost her focus or got sick. Ochako really hated her quirk at first, before she got to really learning about it and mastering it. After that, being in the air just felt so....freeing.

"I see it!! I can try to make us go faster toward it, but that'll exhaust me more and...we may need to ride the rest of the way."

And because they've been going for a little bit now...she's definitely feeling the twist and knot of her stomach acting up. Even at a slower pace like this. Really moving them quicker's going to take more effort, and she's going to get sicker faster, too.

"I-I think I could get us...m-maybe halfway? But I'd really be pushing it, and, um...I'd have to drop our altitude, too, to compensate. Unless I create a tailwind, but, um...that might only get us so far..." Splitting her magic like that is going to be literally the worst, especially when her elemental is actually harder to control and wears her out more than the kinetic, hilariously enough. Ochako's the other way around - her primary is worse than her secondary magic in terms of, erm...fuel consumption.

All the other times Kirishima has flown before now, he'd been pretty confident he could survive a fall thanks to his Quirk. Not so much now. Feeling Ochako drifting near him does make him perk up further and put on a wider grin, half because it's her but also partially because he doesn't want her to worry about him, which he rightly suspects she is.

"Let's ride the rest of the way! We should figure out how quick the rides go now, right? Instead of when we might really need 'em?" Kirishima calls out after Ochako voices her options. Her hesitation between the options is making him get that she's deciding on whether or not to push herself. As much as they need to be speedy right now... he doesn't want her to push herself like this, where finding out how far she can go may result in them falling a long way. They can mess around with that later!

"What do you think, Yaoyorozu?"

Momo thinks for a moment about suggesting that she could create the tailwind, to save Ochako from overexerting herself, but... she's not certain she could manage to split her concentration on both that and the Wayfinder spell at the same time. In the end, she thinks about it strategically and shakes her head.

"Kirisima-san is right. We should budget our energy for the trip back. It's more important that we return expediently, before the holo-magic wears off of the rocks. We can take our time getting there. Riding is the best option."

She rotates in the air and gives Ochako her best, most reassuring smile. "Thank you for getting us this far, Uraraka-san!"

She is worried about her two friends, but also about getting the mission completed swiftly. Still, Ochako's number one priority will always be to keep people safe, so she agrees as well - they not push on more than she can manage, and continue their travels riding on the backs of their familiar instead.

"Alright, you're both right. I'm going to bring us down now, let me just find a safe clearing near the intended path..." And it's not too difficult to find, thankfully. Just a place where the treeline isn't so dense, and Ochako makes her descent first, then brings down Momo and Kirishima after, slowly. Once they're only a few feet from the ground, she releases them by tapping her fingers together and-- "Release."

It just works better that way. Helps her focus. "Ehehe, I'm sorry I couldn't get us farther, but I still have a lot to learn even with this magic, I guess. But I'm glad to be of use for this much. Let me call Aludra-san now."

And hope to god she lets anyone ride her, let alone two new people.

[closed] stone sour

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