[closed] When I'm falling down, will you pick me up again?

[reapsthewind]

Who: Christobel Starsky, Mordin Solus, Elian Price, Emmanuel Hall, Jason Rand
What: Earlier Chris (in a handwaved post because this all kinda got planned in the OOC thread?) said "hey guys let's get up in a rental plane so we can look around!" only this time shit goes horribly wrong instead! Yay!
Where: THE AIR on the outskirts of town
When: Probably Saturday afternoon

See posts below for threads to respond to.

Comments

At the airfield!

[reapsthewind]

Chris is near the old Cessna, giving her a good pre-flight check before you all get off the ground. Say hello?

[caosgo]

Emmmanuel is, well. Apprehensive is a strong word. Chris is certified, after all, but he's been feeling generally paranoid for a month or two, so it's probably not going to stop anytime soon. At least being in the air means no freaky mutated animals, anyway.

He brought a small backpack with his car's first aid kit, and some water and snacks. It's the same one he's been keeping in his trunk for emergencies ever since the mine fiasco. He approaches with a wave, looking like he hasn't slept much.

[reapsthewind]

"Hi," she says, with a casual wave.

"You feeling okay?" she asks. "You look tired."

[caosgo]

He manages a smile. "Rough week. You know." A shrug here, before rubbing his forehead. "Basically, uh, I got nothing for a month or so, and then all of a sudden...They do say to be careful what you wish for."

He clears his throat, looking a little embarrassed by his own rambling. "So. What's our goal for today?"

In the air

[reapsthewind]

"Yeah, I don't think we're gonna find anything either," Chris says, banking the plane to head towards the outskirts of town. "But I figure it can't hurt, right? Even if stuff seems like it's underground, mostly... aerial surveillance can always be good."

She's taken off her jacket, and you can see the plates on her arms shifting and moving as she moves the yoke of the craft.

Re: In the air

[beyond_the_sea]

"Well, uh... hope springs eternal, y'know?"

Shut up it's one of those kinda useless sayings he got off his parents. But at least it sort of sounds like he's being helpful!

"...What should we be looking out for?"

Jason is staring out of the plane window, so he hasn't spotted Chris's robo-arms yet, but when he does he'll probably stare at those even harder.

[reapsthewind]

"Unusual buildings... basically stuff that looks out of place. Like... a while ago we noticed a thing that looked like a normal farm, but had way more security than a farm should. Another group noticed something similar around an abandoned prison, and that turned out to be a base of some sort..."

She banks the plane gently, then levels it out.

"That kind of thing."

OH SHIT

[reapsthewind]

It had all been going so well...

And then the engine just... seized up. Chris froze for a second, her mind racing.

"Everyone stay calm," she said. "If the engine's frozen completely we can just glide down to a landing, we're over farmland. Let me try to just restart it. No big deal."

She reached over to the fuel mix knob, adjusting the fuel/air mix in the engine manually to try to jumpstart it... only to have a horrible, awful grinding noise sound off, and, all at once, for flames to start jumping out of the engine.

"Holy shit! Um," she said. "Okay! Okay, more urgent, but just give me a second and we can still probably make a landing if that doesn't get worse, I just need to pull the plane around and..."

She pulled on the yoke and pressed the foot pedals... only to find that those, too, had locked up completely. "What the hell!? This is a manual plane, that shouldn't happen!"

The plane was locked into a banking turn, and on fire, and with no engine power. With no control, they only had about a minute before the angle of the wings got too steep, and the plane lost lift, dropping like a stone.

"EVERYONE, GRAB A PARACHUTE AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE OUTSIDE," she shouted, reaching back for her own, and reaching over for the door latch. The chances of survival in a situation like this were almost nil.

She started to strap the parachute on, then paused. "Oh... oh god."

The parachutes hadn't been folded correctly by whoever had put them away. They were useless and tangled, with no time to untangle them properly.

She had no words. She stared at her companions in the plane, her heart racing. For once, she didn't even have any bullshit ideas. She was completely out of any ideas at all.

chris i am never going to fly in your uncle again

[beyond_the_sea]

This is so not a good situation by any stretch of the imagination oh god oh god, but Jason manages to follow Chris's instructions with a kind of lockjawed calm until he sees the tangled state of his own parachute.

"Uh!" he says urgently. It's a half-second longer before he remembers how to use his words.

"Problem! Oh fuck."

He's standing in the aisle, not particularly wanting to be here, but unable to run anywhere in particular and having enough trouble staying on his feet in any case.

"Oh jesus."

welp

[testsonseashells]

"If unable to escape, will have to hope we can survive impact," Mordin says calmly. "If any Echo abilities useful, now is the time. Otherwise, recommend we assume brace positions."

I DO NOT BLAME ANYONE FOR NOT WANTING TO FLY WITH HER AGAIN

[reapsthewind]

It takes her a minute to recover. It's one thing to go through training manuals and even to go into stalls to prepare for this kind of thing, another to actually experience it.

"Everyone brace yourselves. I'm going to see if I can't at least restore manual control of the flight surfaces so we can at least not go into a fucking death spiral. Uh, you --" she says, indicating whoever is sitting shotgun.

"We're gonna trade places to see if your flight controls are working still."

She starts to climb over the seat, then seems to go completely pale. Those creepy eyes of hers? Behind her sunglasses, they start glowing brightly enough that they can be seen clearly.

Meanwhile, the plane very abruptly starts righting itself... probably because something in the plane has gotten much heavier and shifted the weight a bit. WONDER WHAT IT COULD BE. Person in shotgun, how could someone so small be so heavy? It is a mystery.

[caosgo]

Emmanuel is, well--he hasn't said a word. Mostly he's just looking tense and just as pale as Chris, gripping the edge of one of the seats for support. He's thinking of the little manuals they give out with instructions for emergencies on commercial flights, and how utterly useless any of that information is here.

At least Chris seems to have another idea, which is good, but then she stops, and--

"Chris--what's wrong? Well, of course, everything's wrong, but--" Oh God. Okay, there's the adrenaline. Think! All he has is a backpack with first aid equipment, not even his knife--not that it would be any help here. He reaches for her shoulder, stumbling slightly thanks to the angle of the plane.