trans_9 | On your broomsticks! [OPEN]

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On your broomsticks! [OPEN]

Following the instructions given to him by crew members here and there, Cedric stepped through a green archway tucked on a corner of the fifth floor and entered a grey void. He closed his eyes, concentrating on the sort of place that would be perfect for a day of flying. He imagined a bright grassy plain, a large lake, and a forest off to the side. Vague memories turned into vivid images surrounding him, so thoroughly convincing that he really believed he'd been taken from the ship and placed on a field back on Earth. It was quite a convincing illusion
.
All it needed now was the key piece: a group of brooms. He thought for a moment on which brooms to provide them with. Firebolts were the world standard, but he'd never known one well enough to be able to picture it accurately. The school brooms, Shooting Stars, were nice and safe for new riders but not quite reliable. In the end, he knew his own broom best: a sleek Nimbus 2001, gifted by his father. As long as he instructed the fliers to go slowly, they should be safe on those brooms.

Visitors would find Cedric side-mounted on a broom in his black and yellow Quidditch robes, gliding just slightly over the grass. As soon as he spotted them, he'd greet them enthusiastically and move to touch down. "Hi!"

((ooc: wide open for everyone to join in! We'll be doing some group exercises too, so thread around! Fly as a group when you're ready!))

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Blue, clear skies, vivid, green grass a beautiful lake were the first things Jr. noticed when he peered into the Sensoriums. He hadn't noticed the finer details just yet, which caused him to wonder who was using it at the moment. Someone who clearly liked big, open spaces. He could appreciate that, too.

When he spotted Cedric's figure nearby, he headed over in that direction. Getting closer, he remembered what the wizard had told him when Jr. bombarded him with all of those questions about magic, and realized quickly enough what it was he was sitting on. And then he spotted the others lined up nearby. Score.

"Yo, Cedric!" he jogged over the rest of the way. "Are you doing what I think you're doing?"

"Hey!" Cedric brightened, glad to see him again. He'd loved talking about Quidditch, and he loved flying even more. To show Jr. how it worked would be great.

"We're having flying lessons today, if that's what you're thinking! No Quidditch today, I thought we'd take things slowly and learn to use the brooms first." And he couldn't be happier about it. He tugged on his robes and dismounted, showing Jr. over to the brooms. "Can you join us today?"

"Aw, and here I was ready to-- uh. Throws some balls. Or hit them. Or catch them. I think those were the things you told me you do in the game, right?" His voice was clearly sarcastic at the beginning of that sentence.

His hands in fists, he pressed them against his waist. "You bet I can! Cool robes, too. Are those what you fly in?"

"We could do that later on if you still wanted to," he laughed. "It's just important to master flying first. If you want to fly?" And that was his offer of the day.

Cedric nodded happily, very glad to have his robes back for the moment. "Yes. All the school teams have different colours. Ours are yellow and black."

Yes, they'd heard the bumblebee joke before. He'd come to laugh at it, joking that they'd sting their opponents when they weren't looking.

Flying in something other than a cockpit sounded awesome. Jr. nodded and leaned over one of the brooms. "So what," he asked as he slowly gripped the thing, lifting it up. He was careful, as if he expected it to somehow start yanking him into the air. So far so good. "We're just supposed to sit on it and ... tell it go?"

Cedric demonstrated a kick against the grass. "That's it. Make sure you're gripping it tightly and kick off. Then you'll turn the handle and shift your weight to steer."

He steered this way and that, going slowly to show the general idea.

Swinging a leg over the broom, Jr. watched Cedric take to the air intently. "I never thought I'd be nervous to control something that didn't have a ton of buttons and controls like the Asher..." he muttered, shifting his gaze down to where he gripped the broom.

"Well, let's try this!" And he kicked off, moving a few feet off the ground.

And then he wobbled some, as he tried to keep his balance, rocking back and forth and at one point flipping all the way over, legs hooking over the broom at the knees as he held onto the broom. "T-this is tougher than it looks!"

Of course broom-riding wasn't always easy. In some ways, it was like learning to walk. You needed to learn balance first. He watched patiently, flying closer to offer some help with Jr's grip.

"Don't worry, you're getting it! More than you think you are. You'll want to remember how to hang on to the broom upside down like that, you might need it someday. Try shifting your hips back, like this."

He demonstrated, never far in case he was needed.

"Well that's a little encouraging," he admitted. Didn't Cedric mention balls that tried to hit you? He wondered if they were connected with the need to be able to hang on like that.

"So, kind of like sitting as you would on a bike, or..."

Hey, best to maybe try from experience. "Or maybe in a cockpit! Let me try that." Shaking a little more, he swung himself back over, staying close to the ground to get a good lead on the balancing again. Shifting himself, he didn't flip over straight away the second try.

But he still wobbled something crazy, trying to get a feel for it.

"There, that's better!" Cedric was delighted. Like a cockpit, huh? "Don't worry, I'm sure I'd be even worse trying to operate one of your cockpits."

It would be a disaster waiting to happen. "Just give it time, you'll adjust. I wasn't exactly a natural flier either."

"Well they take a lot less-- woah--" Jr. gave a serious wobble there, catching himself just in time. "Balance. Just a lot more buttons and controls..."

He forced a smile. "But really? You weren't?"

"That's the hard part. Magic doesn't have buttons, just incantations and wand movements. I suppose those are still things to memorise. It's just different."

Cedric was being serious! He drifted closer, calling to mind a particularly embarrassing day. "Yeah. I'm really amazed at how many people here seem to be natural fliers. I had to work hard for this---it might feel natural now, but I fell off a few times. The incantation for the cleaning spell was one of the first I learned because my father had to use it so many times!"

The mental image of a much younger Cedric caked in mud came to mind, along with the face of his exasperated father. He missed those days. He missed Father too. But that wasn't important right now.

"When I finally managed to stay on the broom, I got so excited that I forgot to keep hanging on. That fall hurt the worst," he recalled.

With a quick mock salute, Jr. grabbed onto the broom again- mainly because a salute required use of a hand that was important to hold on and keep balance. "In that case I'll work hard to get the hang of it, too!"

He was doing a little less wobbling, but still kept things slow as he rose a little further off the ground. "So is your whole family wizards, too?"

"Yeah, that's it! You're getting it." Cedric was reminded of himself as he watched. He could've done with some more encouragement and less pressure, so he strove for that sort of balance.

"Yeah. My father worked for our goverment---the Ministry of Magic. Magic tends to run in families, but sometimes a magical person is born to Muggle parents or a child from a magical family doesn't have magic. It's tricky when it happens either way."

It was sad for them, and a better sadness for him to focus on right now. He couldn't help thinking of his family grieving.

"A whole government? That sounds cool." He looked down to the broom again, wondering if there were like, broom speeding tickets and stuff like that when it came to laws, if their world had a government like that.

He tested out movement a little more, moving through the air slowly and making a small turn. "Okay ... I think I'm getting the hang of it a little better." At least he wasn't flipping over again.

Cedric had to laugh about that. "You'd think so. They do a good enough job, I suppose, but the bans on certain flying objects and enchanting Muggle things really bother some people. If they were allowed to, they'd be making magic teapots that a Muggle might accidentally try to use someday."

He sometimes wished he had a magic teapot, but that was hardly the point. "You are! You're getting your bearings, they'll all be there soon."

He turned that statement over a couple of times in his head before responding. Along with that Cedric had told him about keeping their world a secret and using memory loss magic, it made sense. "Right, cause if people saw things flying around that shouldn't be, they'd find out about you, right?"

"Exactly," Cedric nodded. "We're allowed to practice on teapots at Hogwarts, but we're not allowed to have those enchanted things out in the Muggle world."

He dipped lower on his broom, watching, encouraging. "How're you feeling, Jr.?"

"A little better, now! Sort of like riding a bike ... slow and steady til you get used to it and it comes more naturally." He followed Cedric's movements, only a little slower than the other boy.

"What kind of things can you enchant? Like ... big things?"

"Right. You're getting it," he nodded happily, turning to watch Jr.'s excellent progress.

"Sure! It takes more than one wizard to enchant a very large object, but most things are possible. We have laws limiting big objects, as they're too easy for Muggles to find, but it can technically be done. There are enchantments cast over whole buildings, to make them undetectable to enemies."

"Woah, ninja buildings?"

The thought of that distracted him for a moment and he lost a bit of the balance he had obtained, but quickly snapped focus back to.

"Uh, when you say enemies, do you mean the people without magic?" That was the only conclusion Jr. could jump to - if wizards tried to hide away from the, wasn't that because things could get ugly from their vast differences?

"Not always," Cedric sighed. "Muggles aren't our enemies. We just have to protect them and ourselves. Every magical location has defences to keep Muggles out, but there are different enchantments to protect against unwanted magical visitors. Some buildings are Unplottable, meaning their locations can't be mapped. Others are protected with charms that make them appear as though nothing's there unless the person is meant to be there. There are barriers as well."

He'd heard all about the community's attempts to escape the Death Eaters during the war. It had been a dark time.

"Unwanted magical visitors ... okay, I think I get'cha." After all, most groups of people always had their bad eggs and assholes, right? "Those are some pretty useful sounding skills, too! If you wanted to hide away somewhere, you'd be pretty well off."

"Precisely. In our case, the bad eggs wanted to murder those of us deemed unworthy." It was a harsh reality, one he'd never directly faced. But what he battled now as a crew member was worse.

"Yeah. And we learn personal defences as well. Shields, disguises, disillusioning, distractions...I can't quite make myself invisible, but I can become almost impossible to see." That was always fun.

Jr. leaned forward on the broom a bit, swaying it back and forth as he listened. "Woah, really? That sounds like fun! ... and an easy trick for Halloween."

On your broomsticks! [OPEN]

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