[Miriam Gracey]

Late Fall/Early in Training

Chattering like the little birds that lived in the bushes near the mess hall, Miri and her friends skipped along to 3DM training. Miri had mostly fallen in with a group of similar cadets - skilled enough but not yet remarkable -  and all with the same chipper attitude. Miri could see her breath in the chilly morning air and she laughed as she tried to blow rings with the mist. Her father could blow rings with the smoke from his pipe. He did a better job than she did.

While Miri could not say she was enjoying training - she was not - but 3DM lessons were always a highlight. She loved the feeling of flying and would normally find herself shrieking and giggling with joy. Miri was typically reprimanded for that and that was alright as far as the little blonde was concerned. 

Today's lesson was typical. Using their 3DM gear, the cadets had to get as high into the trees as they could and then make their way across the tops and through the branches. Miri was doing fine, launching with relative ease from branch to branch, until she misjudged a distance and found herself falling. She let out a yelp but was able to shoot another hook and at least stop herself. She came to rest, upside down, in front of a dark haired cadet. She did not know his name.

"Whoops!" She giggled as she spun around and waved at the boy, "Hiiii! Sorry to drop in like this!" « Last Edit: February 07, 2019, 04:06:51 AM by Miriam Gracey »

[Tyler Morgan]

Most of the training lessons they had were boring for Tyler. Nothing new to learn, not a big surprised for someone that had trained for the military since he can remember. While their instructors knew what they were doing, they couldn’t reach the level Tyler was used to. Well, they taught a bunch of Cadets at once, while his old teachers had solely focused on him. However, there was one lesson Tyler hadn’t been prepared for.

3DM lessons. While he was given every training to assure him graduating in the Top 10 and joining the MP, this had been the impossible one. The risk of buying the gear on the black market or bribing someone to lend it had been too big. Unfortunately this one missing training threatened Tyler’s chances to join the MP. Because he feared heights.

Somehow he had managed to pull through climbing lessons without his instructors realizing it. The instructors of the Training Corps hadn’t found out yet, too. They just thought he had no talent and couldn’t hide it behind previous training.

Today they once again were tasked to move through the tops of the trees and Tyler slowly followed those instructions. He didn’t aim for the highest branches like some of his fellow Cadets. Choose large branches to land on. Stayed on them as long as possible and griped the bark hard with his fingers, already scratched up and stiff from the effort.

Just when he found the next branch to move on to Tyler saw someone falling. With a thud a hook landed in the tree and she hung upside down, giggling. Tyler strengthened his grip and the bark, fingers turning white. He felt the urge to throw up, forbidding himself to think of himself in the same situation like the girl. “Are you…alright?” he asked, not able to suppress the quiver of his voice. After a moment of hesitation he added. “How can you be that relaxed after falling?”

[Miriam Gracey]

“Are you…alright?”

“I’m great!” Miri chirped brightly. It had not been a bad fall - not really. Other’s had fallen further and been fine. Honestly, she thought it was sort of fun - she liked the feeling of her heart racing and her stomach jumping into her throat.

She let herself swing back and forth and smiled at the boy.  She could see him holding onto the tree and blinked a few times - wondering if he was okay. Another gust of air blew her gently back and forth and she laughed again.

“How can you be that relaxed after falling?”

Miri was silent for a moment. That was a really interesting question. "Well...I guess I knew I could catch myself. I never thought I should be scared when I fell."

As she spoke, Miri pulled herself upright and looked around, "I don't think the instructor will like me just hanging here." She peered up towards the tops of the trees and then back towards the boy. "Here...watch out."

Without waiting for him to respond, Miri swung herself out and then quickly back towards the branch the boy was on.

"You okay? How come you're down here? I think everyone else is up." Miri asked the boy. "I'm Miri by the way."

[Tyler Morgan]

Great? How can you be great after falling, with certain death looming below if you didn’t catch yourself in time? Tyler stared at the girl in disbelief. While she swung around Tyler felt sick. Just imagining himself in the position of the girl was enough. Damn heights, the only thing he hadn’t been able to prepare for.

“How can’t you be scared when you fall? You only have mere seconds to react or else-“ Tyler stopped himself, feeling his throat tightening with fear. The possibility of crashing into the ground to frightening. There hadn’t been any incident in their year yet, but he had heard the older Cadets whispering to each other. About Cadets falling to their death.

Tyler shook his head to clear his head at the question of the girl – Miri he corrected himself. When he realized this head shaking could be interpreted as an answer to her question, that he was not okay, he hastily stopped the motion. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just having a bad day and don’t want to take too much risk today,” he answered, feeling bad to lie to the girl. She was so cheerful, honest, and didn’t deserve being lied to. “I’m Tyler – Ty. Uhm, nice to meet you?”