Orelai- Charity Event

Story by MigeYeFoxe on SoFurry

, , ,

#6 of Orelai

Well, let's be honest here. If there was a means to go up and be flown up into the air with a celebrity to take a selfy, I'm sure quite a few people would take them up on the matter. And a Wind user would probably be one of the few that would allow for safe personal demonstrations. And yes, Projections would need to still be able to breathe. They are effectively real bodies in every sense of the word. The only difference is that if a Projected body dies, the user doesn't die alongside it but rather just wake up in their original body. Well that and the Projected body has no purpose regarding eating, drinking, sleeping, using the potty, etc. though the original body still does need to do all these things.


Anton wasn't entirely sure how he felt about the situation. He's done public events in the past, sometimes even in his projected form. But in the past, he was there to talk and take pictures. Or at most do like maybe one or two spells well away from everyone else where it was safe. For this particular event, however, he's not only being expected to use his abilities around the other people but on them in a very controlled manner. He was terrified that he would use a bit too much force and accidentally hurt them.

But Mellisandre had said that it would be really good for getting people to get used to him if he were to do some simple tasks with people, while his magic lasted at any rate. They had made it very clear that once he was starting to feel drained he'd completely stop and that was that. And if he felt the need to, he could leave and return to his normal body. In the meantime, he would be giving people something they are apparently willing to pay to do, which is to have him take them up into the air using only his powers. Naturally they'd have a parachute and other safety equipment if something goes wrong. Doesn't change the fact that people are trusting him with their lives as he takes them into the air. But he is okay with it as it is for a good cause and it'll only be on people who pay specifically for him to take them into the air and they can back out at any point. That and the fact that he has no need to expose himself. Mellisandre had tried to talk him into not having the outfit but he absolutely refused and she eventually relented.

His current fare is a young woman. She clings to him rather tightly as he takes her up, even though it wouldn't change anything. It does make it rather difficult for him to breathe. What he assumes are her friends are laughing at her response to being brought up into the air. Once he gets her to about forty feet into the air he tries tapping on her shoulder.

"Excuse me, I still kind of need to be able to breathe," he chokes out.

He keeps tapping her on the shoulder and eventually she eases up a bit, allowing him to breathe more fully and his ribs won't ache as much. But she is still gripping on to him rather tightly, just no longer enough to cut off his air. He looks down and even finds that her eyes are fully closed.

"You know," he teases, "it kind of defeats the point of me taking you up here if you don't even look around." She doesn't immediately look around and he considers that she could still say she did it, even if she didn't look at all the entire time. He wonders if perhaps she is only doing it on a sort of dare. "I'm not going to drop you. If it is about me being from--"

"No!" she quickly shouts back into his chest, still refusing to talk back. "That's not it! I would never! It's just. Well. I'm afraid of heights."

"That's not really a reason to have me take you up in the air," he says softly. Though he does understand that it is a very real problem people have and that it can be very difficult for people to deal with is not something he's at all familiar with. Being a wind element user he's always been rather comfortable in the air, even in his real body where he doesn't have that safety net readily available. But then again, if he was falling from a great enough height he probably could project himself quickly enough to create enough wind to soften his own fall anyway.

"They convinced me that this would be the safest way to conquer my fear," she stammers, squeezing him a little tighter, causing him to push on her a bit to still have room to breathe.

"There are probably far better ways to deal with trying to cope with your fear. And probably ones far easier on your wallet, too."

"I know. But if I come up here with you and they do not then I can know I can conquer my own fear when I feel the need to. And it's far more convincing to people to say I've proven that I can overcome it if I do it on something this visible."

"How about a picture then? Do you have a camera on you?" Anton asks.

"I do, but it's in my back pocket," she says quickly.

Anton considers how best to approach. It would probably be seen as very improper for him to go digging around in the pockets of a stranger and she's probably too frightened to grab it herself at the moment. Thinking on it he decides he can trade places with the grabbing thing and that'll free up her arms, even if it still doesn't do anything. He grips her tightly, enough that she won't feel like she can move much but not enough to restrict her breathing. "Okay, I got you. You won't fall. Go ahead and grab it."

She hesitates before reaching very reluctantly with one hand in her pocket to fish out her camera. Once out she goes back to trying to crush his ribs again until he taps her shoulder enough that she eases up enough that he can breathe. Anton uses his power to gently pluck the camera out of her hand, making sure to pull only up so that she won't feel like she's dropping it. Her eyes still haven't opened once since they were in the air. He aims the camera above them, so that it'll show the two of them with the ground below them. He reaches into a pocket of his own and tugs at a little bit on his own jacket to remove a little rubber thimble.

"Okay now. I'm going to need you to open your eyes to go look at your own camera. Just look up and you'll be fine. I got you. Just stare at your own camera and you'll be fine."

She's very hesitant and so he takes matters slightly in his own hands and grabs her chin and guides her head to aim at the camera. Eventually she opens her eyes enough to look at the camera. "Okay, now smile." He says After giving her a moment to try and smile he uses the rubber stopper to take the picture. And then just to make sure it turned out well since it isn't an exact thing he's done often he brings the camera in and takes a look at the photo. It turns out to be a little off-center but it did capture the two of them mostly well. He then figures it's time to bring her on back, letting her focus on the camera more than their height. Only when she feels her feet touch the ground does she finally notice that they're descending. She thanks him by kissing him on the cheek of the mask before running off back to her friends. Mellisandre comes up to him and shrugs.

"Nice thing you did there."

"Eh. Beats just standing there fighting to breathe."

"How's the hands. Any tingling yet?" she asks.

"No, not yet. I'm probably good for four, maybe five more before it'll become a problem," Anton says, staring at his hands for a moment.

"Right. I'm going to give you only two more for now. Then I want you to just take a break and mingle. People here are paying to spend time with the team, not just to get a ride on a personal elevator."

Anton sticks his tongue out at Mellisandre, knowing full well that she can't see it through his mask. Even still she waves over a signals with 2 fingers at the person in charge of collecting the money for the people who are going up with him. The next person seems to be a little kid with his parents watching from the sidelines. It's very apparent that the kid is the main reason their family is here and that he is the main reason the kid is here, which takes Anton back a bit. He wouldn't have thought they would be that accepting of him. Or at least he assumes that is the case as he's wearing a cape very similar to Anton's, even going so far as to match the color scheme.

"Ready to go?" Anton asks when the youth walks up to him. The boy enthusiastically nods and doesn't actually reach out to grab hold of Anton.

When he begins to raise them up he's half concerned he scared the kid as he starts half screaming as soon as he starts trying to lift the two up, but it takes him a moment that he's not screaming out of fear as excitement. Shrugging he lifts both of them up with a flourish. He can practically smell the excitement coming off the kid. When they reach the approved height the kid just starts spastically talking almost faster than Anton can track and waving down at his parents. Apparently not at all concerned about the height. And it reminds him of how he feels about heights himself.

"You a wind type user yourself?" Anton asks.

"That's what they say," the kid nods. It makes sense that he would idolize Anton then, of someone with the same ability set that's a professional fighter. "But I haven't been able to project yet."

"It'll come," Anton says. "Most who can project aren't able to until puberty."

"When did you first do it?" he asks.

"Junior year of high school. I was being stupid and trying to fly while jumping off one of those like half-sized fences and accidentally jumped out of my skin instead. Gave myself a nasty bruise when my head hit the grass," Anton lies. The truth was he was walking on the top bar of the school's bleachers on a bet and slipped and fell. And the need to act triggered his first projection, though he did still bang his head a bit because he hadn't perfected his abilities yet. But he was in no way going to suggest a kid try and jump off something twenty feet in the air on the hopes of bringing it out. Jumping from a height of three feet is far safer for the kid to believe.

"So how did you do that camera thing?" he asks.

"Oh, that's actually rather simple. Like this," Anton says and applies a little bit of force pushing down on the kid's head. Nowhere nearly enough to hurt, just enough for him to feel it. "Sometimes wind is me shaping the air into a little shell of my choosing. For a blade I compress the air into that shape and then throw it out. For us up here I've shaped the air into little platforms right below us pushing up against us. I can create a shape and then use force to move it around, but I don't have to make a shape. So I can hold a camera up and steady using shaped air and then just use only the force on a rubber ball to push against the phone for the camera. It's not nearly enough force to damage anything."

The kid seems nice enough and they chat for a minute or two more, Anton giving the kid a picture just like he did the woman and then lets them down. The last one he was to do was just some man in a suit. Didn't really look at all familiar and didn't say anything, even when Anton tried to bring up some sort of conversation. But he was effectively a paying customer and so Anton did as he was being paid to do and took the man up high like all of the others. The man does definitely seem appreciative of the experience, though at the same time seemed almost a bit bored. As if he both was enjoying the experience while at the same time very much would rather be doing something else. But as he had the last few he offers to see if the man would want a picture of the two taken. The man reluctantly agrees, as if he had forgotten that was an option.

"Do you get a copy of these too?" he asks as he hands over his camera, which is actually a really nice one from the looks of things.

"Well it's your camera. So we'll only get a copy if you personally send us one."

"That is fine," the man says and smiles at the camera while Anton takes the picture.

The man thanks him for the camera and then after another moment he lets the two of them back down. The man thanks him again and then walks away without a second glance. Rather perplexed by the exchange and knowing that that was as many as he was told to allow up he goes to find one of his other teammates to see if they knew what that was about. He finds Rojan nearby and waves to get his attention.

"So what was up with that guy?" Anton asks after explaining the situation.

"Ah, so he really did it, huh? I was wondering what he would end up doing when I saw him on the guest list."

"And he is."

"Robert Ellender. Oh right, you probably still haven't been here long enough to recognize the name. But on this side of the border he's a really big deal in our line of work. One of the biggest reporters and has the biggest following. He's seen as the authority for the average person on everything related to our sport. Not necessarily always correct, but people trust him."

"So then why behave in that manner? If he was a reporter shouldn't he be trying to get a story or something."

"This time, he was the story. Sort of. When we first signed you he was one of your biggest detractors. Said all the most nasty things about you and how you would absolutely destroy the team and make a mockery of everything we do. And then you just kept doing not a single thing he said you would. You kept being you. That you were never just some hotshot who thought they would come over here and dominate everyone. You are a little hot headed and a bit prone to showing off but you treat this like the team event it is. And lately he's been getting a lot of pushback about his initial stance towards you. On that it only feeds their opinion of us for him to behave in such a way when you're clearly one of the good ones."

"One of the good ones?" Anton asks.

"Well, yeah," he says before suddenly feeling rather awkward. "It's what they say about you. People don't just give up on stereotypes. So instead they consider you to be the exception to how they are, of proof that there are some good people in your country, they just aren't the ones speaking up most of the time."

"Gee, thanks," Anton frowns, not entirely sure what he thinks about that kind of thought, that he's being treated as a token or exception when he's always just held himself to be as himself.

"But yeah. He was here as a sort of apology to you. His reluctance, especially if you were being friendly towards him was probably a matter of his guilt for how he had treated you."

Anton shrugs and walks away to ponder. This was an event and he was expected to socialize, but that didn't change the fact that he now saw how they reacted to him in a new light and made him think about how genuine the people here really were.