Flying or Flying

Author: Miyoshi Akachi

Original post:

Entry for YC119 New Eden Capsuleer Writing Contest.

I live to fly.

I live to feel the adrenaline rush.

I couldn't never live without flying.

Up in the air she went, spinning on her central axis, skiis crossed below her, her right hand reaching to grab the tail of the ski. We aren't talking about the mighty capsuleers but about someone far more human.

It all started as a game, I was such a little child when parents first put me on gravskiis. At first it wasn't nothing serious but I saw what older boys did, how they fly from snow-made jumps, how they did tricks up in the air and I started asking myself "Why shouldn't I do it?"

I had so many people looking at me in a more or less reprehensible way as I first started doing what boys did. I was just a girl of 10 or so years when I first started jumping and entering the world of freestyle gravskiing. At the time it was cool yes but it was still a playful game.

As I grew, in age and skills, I realized why many said I shouldn't do that, why I and a few other girls were considered so different. We were doing things only boys usually did. It only made me push forward.

The first time I jumped from a serious jump, when I found myself up in the air, suspended for a fraction of a moment, my heart was pounding, I felt such an adrenaline rush I couldn't forget.

I couldn't stay away from it. I couldn't stop flying. It would have meant die inside.

Lucky for me my parents had more interest in my well-being than conventions coming from an old world and they supported me, they pushed me to try more, to not let myself be scared by the difficulty of each harder trick.

I become a gravskiier.

A dream was coming true.

While I was studying on the books, I couldn't wait to be out in the wild, shredding and flying somewhere. I never looked at the stars cause all my world, all I wanted to be was there, on the ground.

Things, however, change.

Year after year I grew as one of the top female gravskiier of Origin. At first it was strange to have people look up to you, to have journalist ask you questions, sometimes I didn't even know what to answer! But as time passed, I grew used, I tried to inspire more girls to do things outside the common rules inherited from the outside world.

I had guys trying to date me, but in the end I never found a good relationship. Friends, yes, of course, my coach, the other guys I usually ski with but nothing like a good love relationship. I think I wasn't ready. Other girls dated and all but my mind was more interested in upchanging the game, in trying more, in feeling the rush of adrenaline, instead of looking for a person to spend time with.

For me capsuleers had always looked like gods. I mean, they are up in space, they fly, they shoot things, they can do things a baseliner like me could never do. Some people argue they had too much power, that they are too dangerous to be let free to fly. If they protect us, if they let me do what I loved to, they should be doing a good work, isn't it?

I wasn't sure my flying was at all comparable with their flying. I just propelled myself in the air, turning and spinning; they flew ships in space, they flew with people under their command. When they flew, danger was intrinsic, they could bring death. I feel like we were really different.

Later, I found out that for some of them our flying are more similar than I thought. The adrenaline rush, for some of them, was there as it is for me. Some of them feel free up there, in space. They can feel in another place and dimension.

I will never ever forget that pair of weeks at the Stargazer Resort. You can think things would never change, you can think you're not good at certain things, you can think you will never do certain things but sometimes, you end up doing exactly what you believed you wouldn’t do or you wouldn't be able to.

The Stargazers Resort is a big resort built by a capsuleer in the north of Renaissance. The building is impressive in itself as is impressive the nature surrounding it all. For the opening, the owner organized a big event, complete with competitions, galas and what you can think of.

I was part of the many gravskiier and gravboarder invited for the first Stargazers Invitational.

I had been so excited at the thought of going up there, finding myself with the best of the gravskiing world. For me the fact that other higher ups might be present wasn't much of interest. I was going to compete and show off once again against and with the best Origin could offer!

You know when you do something just to try it? Just because why not? Because you want to do something crazy just because the chance is there? I made that mistake. Mistake is the wrong word. That was the least mistake I ever did in all my life.

The owner itself attended to the competitions as well as to some of the evening gala. She was a capsuleer, she was more rich that everyone in all the resort, excluding any fellow capsuleer of course. I wondered why she was there, wasn't the resort just a way to make money? I was wrong as I learned there was passion for what she had created. I always imagined capsuleers a bit of the cold-hearted types. They have countless lives at their fingertips!

That one, on the other hand, was passionate, was moved by emotions as much as cold thinking. She wasn't like no one I met before.

I admit I was attracted by her, she wasn't as beautiful as some models you see on the news but I liked her, I liked the gleaming of her piercings, the blue eyes hiding more than what appeared. She knew well who she was, how other people looked at her.

I wondered why I ever thought to go speak with her, why I thought I could talk with someone being closer to god than everyone else. Now, it’s a waste of time wondering what went through my mind that time, when I approached her.

One of the adjectives that never really fit me was shy. I had always been more of cheerful and friendly person, I was reserved too but I usually showed my brighter side. I expected her to be somewhat cold, I was just a gravskiier, a good one but just a baseliner, I was no one compared to the people she met in her daily routine.

Instead, she gave me a sensation of warm and friendliness. We talked and drinked together. I found out she used to gravskiing, before she went into the training to become immortal. She turned people down to keep talking with me, to get to know each other more.

Without shame, I admit that the evening soon turned blurry but what I remember as clearly as I see you is the sensations, the emotions burning bright that night. I felt things changing. I felt I had changed. I felt I had found someone I wanted to care for. I wanted to love, I wanted to have close, I want to share my life with.

My more cynic side warned me that for the capsuleer I was just a toy, we had some fun for a night but things weren't really going to last. I was just a gravskiier and she was a mighty capsuleer. But she was human too, deep below the skin.

She didn't leave me in the morning. Instead we had breakfast together. And then, she asked me to... see each other again. And again. If I'd liked that. Curse me if I didn't! She was asking me to date... I couldn't believe it. What I was feeling was... reciprocated by her.

The first week went away so fast, the Invitational was over, people were going back to their home resorts but she asked me to stay. She asked me if I wanted to stay with her, more than just friends. That had been one of the rare times I went close to faint.

A capsuleer was asking me to be her girlfriend.

I never heard of it before. I knew some of them had lovers between the baseliners but they usually remained between themselves.

I was shocked. At the same time, my heart rejoiced and burned bright, I wanted to be with her. I wanted to be the shoulder she could cry on, I wanted to be the one she could trust and to who she could come back. We exchanged a promise that day.

We celebrated the moment and we had a great time ever since. Because yes, before you ask, we are still together. What seemed to be a one-time thing, not really made to last, turned in a long term affair, at today still in good health.

She giggles and blush lightly at the thought of her girl thinking of her up in space.

We had some troublesome moments but we always sticked together, we always came back together. I feel we are connected, I feel both are having the best from the relationship.

I kept doing what I did, I kept flying up in the sky, I kept upchanging the game. My love did the same, she kept flying up in space, keeping us safe and always coming back to me.

We both fly.

Always together.

Love you.