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Post by Morgan on Nov 10, 2021 22:12:37 GMT -6
They had spoken about what a barrel roll was supposed to be before this, but Morgan goes over it in their own head relatively quickly again- sending over a mental image of Endymion performing the idea Morgan had in their head of the roll. Endymion's unease is projected hard enough that Morgan recognized it for what it was. He purposefully gains quite a bit more altitude, and Morgan tightens theirself to his back. They knew that he was going to need as little drag as possible to perform the maneuver.
Endymion straightens out his body to move a little faster. Something about the idea of this maneuver and the orange Eideon's experience so far with flying made it obvious to him that he needed to be going as fast as possible to keep from falling out of the sky. Then, he tucks his wings to his body and then twists.
Morgan holds on for dear life.
[5]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 10, 2021 22:26:08 GMT -6
Endymion's execution of the 'barrel roll' was heavily lopsided, and he found that he had extreme difficulty (to the point of near panic) whenever he went to snap his wings back open. For a moment, he was a tad convinced that he was going to hit the ground. However, they weren't all that close to the ground in actuality; Morgan could see that (even though the wind stung their eyes). Endymion tries a little harder, and is just barely able to lift them from his sides. Even the smallest amount of wind-catch was enough to snap them open, and suddenly they stopped spinning (fast enough that Morgan would have been thrown if not for the new leather straps; which they were instantly thankful for).
Endymion wanted to land after this, but Morgan urged him on. <We didn't die; that was a good first try. Let's go again.>
The great orange draconic made to gather more altitude for the attempt.
[6]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 10, 2021 22:44:26 GMT -6
Morgan was perhaps a little less afraid of being killed by accident than they should be at the time; perhaps because they were on a relative 'high swing' of a mood compared to their normal depressive episodes. Endymion always thought that someday, his human would be killed doing something especially stupid during those high-swing moods. This was part of why he'd taken to having a bit of an attitude with them as of late.
Still, Endymion is quite the skilled flyer at this point, and now that he knows how much strength it would take to open up his wings during the roll he feels much more in control of the situation. Whenever he gets up about as high as he was earlier, Morgan tucks their heels into his sides again, and he draws his wings up to his sides again and twists as fast as he can.
It is perhaps the ugliest barrel roll in the world; but it technically counted.
[7]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 10, 2021 23:13:28 GMT -6
Endymion snaps his wings open and for a second he is rocked back and forth by the air off of his own wings, but he manages to right himself. They had not lost altitude in this roll, but did come out of it facing a completely different direction and being a little bit disoriented. Morgan lets out a breath that they had been holding, but gave him a pat on his shoulder that soundly meant 'good job', and that was something that Endymion felt a swell of pride upon. He breathes more calmly once they were back on the correct path, circling over the particular patch of The Mesa that they worked on. Before long, after they've both caught their breaths, Morgan pressed their heels into his side again, and he tucked his wings again- dipping into a speedy sort of spiral of a barrel-roll.
This one was also not the cleanest, but it worked.
[8]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 11, 2021 16:24:40 GMT -6
The pair had a lot of work to do, and they worked for an hour more that day. At first, the barrel rolls were always very lopsided, and always wound up with both Endymion and Morgan being a little sick and winded, and also turned in the complete wrong direction. However, Endymion was beginning to make different adjustments. Some of them at first wound up completely worse; one of them ended up with them so close to the ground that Morgan was just about to ask him to call it quits for the day. But they felt his determination to get it right flow across their bond, and Morgan simply held on as they tried several more times.
Finally, each attempt at the barrel roll began to become smoother and smoother, and Morgan's application of the signal for him to barrel roll got closer and closer to his reaction time. They had already been working quite well in sync.
They decided to give it another go another time, to rest.
It would be another week of Endymion solo-practicing for Morgan to return on a weekend.
[9]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 11, 2021 16:30:52 GMT -6
Whenever Morgan returned the next week, they immediately began working with Endymion again. There was a nice autumn night with a great clear sky full of stars, and Morgan wanted to test out earlier rather than later whether or not Endymion had kept his word and followed the solo training regimen to get better at the barrel roll. First, they worked him through a small 'what if' scenario where a pretend enemy was engaging them in a sky-fight; and they worked him through several of the bits that they had worked on up to that point; including the flips from earlier. Finally, they coaxed him into a barrel roll.
Immediately upon receiving the signal, Endymion tucks his wings and then turns his body into a twist (one he was very proud of, since he was working so hard before) in which he was able to perform quite the tight turn. Morgan was not entirely convinced that it wasn't a fluke, so they worked it into the training regimen. They asked him to do a few more flips, and several more barrel rolls while flying. After another few hours (that tired the two out completely) Morgan was convinced enough to allow them both to head home to get some rest.
[10] - [Finished with 'Barrel Roll', also rehashed 'Flip' a Bit] - [Morgan is using Sever Bond on this day at the cost of 4 MP] - [The pair leave for home.]
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