campanas | whole new world

Pen wakes up at about four in the afternoon. It takes her a few seconds to remember why she's here, but then she remembers and starts looking for Cindy.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

manofmyword

"Sure!"

From:

campanas

Pen claps. She looks merrily out the windows all the rest of the way there.

From:

manofmyword

They drive past a large building with elaborate fancy architecture covered in pigeon poop, and enter an underground parking garage with no lines painted on the floor. He parks them near some stairs and gets out. It's very dark, but he brought flashlights.

From:

campanas

Pen follows him. In the dark, even with flashlights, she prefers to hold hands.

From:

manofmyword

That is an entirely reasonable preference which he is happy to accomodate!

Up the stairs, pick a lock, down a hall, pick another lock, down a somewhat prettier hall, and into an

enormous

empty room.

It's still dark. He hunts for lightswitches.

From:

campanas

"Oooh," says Pen, on the basis of the provided light from the flashlights; and then: "Ooooh!" at the acoustics, and she bursts into song, a high fluttery hymn, filling the space.

From:

manofmyword

Cindy beams.

He finds the lights.

There's a stage, and several ranks of balconies going up and up all around the sides, and a huge empty space in the middle of it all where long metal strips on the bare concrete floor hint at an unrealized potential for seating. The white paint is peeling off the pillars that support the balconies, but the brass railings still gleam under a light coating of plaster dust.

From:

campanas

Once Pen can see clearly, she runs, still singing, and flings her wings open, and catches air and flies.

She's not very graceful at first - there's no wind in here, she can't catch any updrafts and isn't making her usual course corrections - but she's strong and eager to be airborne, so she beats her wings harder, and sings and sings.

From:

manofmyword

He perches on the edge of the stage and watches with a smile.

From:

campanas

Eventually, when Pen has the hang of the limited space and the knack of indoor flying, she swoops down on him and, one hand under each of his arms, scoops him up into the air with her.

From:

manofmyword

Cindy laughs gleefully.

From:

campanas

She takes him a couple laps around the hall, then puts him down again - landing in the process, dropping him is potentially unapproved - and takes off again.

"Not floating-up wind here," she informs him when she's aloft once more and her song is over.

From:

manofmyword

"Yeah," he says. "'Cause we're inside. I could find you someplace outside but it'll take longer."

From:

campanas

"This okay a little while. And good singing!"

From:

manofmyword

"Mhm! This was supposed to be a concert hall," he says. "But they never finished building it."

From:

campanas

Pen sings another song, swooping around as high as she can without bumping into the ceiling.

From:

manofmyword

He giggles quietly.

From:

campanas

After a few hours, she is tired of flapping so much. She lands on the stage, and finishes her current song, and then folds her wings and yawns and goes up to him and hugs him.