Liam's Shuttle, Fandom and then beyond, Tuesday Evening

[firstofitskind]

So this time last year, Liam and Verity had woken up together for the first time. Yeah, much like this past weekend, it had been after being small children for a few days. But they'd decided that since that first weekend had involved sharing (toy) weaponry, then the morning after ought to count as far as anniversaries went.

Look, it made sense to them, just go with it.

A few months ago, Liam had promised Verity both flying lessons and a look at the Northern Lights, and tonight seemed like the perfect opportunity to make good on that promise, and so he'd worked out a flight plan to guide her through and packed a picnic dinner for when they got to their destination. Now all he needed was, well. Verity herself.

[ooc: for the giiiirl.]

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[firstofitskind]

"Happy anniversary," Liam echoed, and... yeah. That thrill of unfamiliar-yet-also-exactly-right that accompanied the words was kind of amazing.

"You look fantastic," he added, waving away the virtual glass so they could step inside the shuttle. Out of habit, he headed for the pilot's seat, and then paused, shaking his head and making an 'all yours' gesture with one hand towards the seat in question.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity smirked at him, taking her seat in the pilot's chair. "Antimony is gonna murder me when she finds out about this," she said, with no little satisfaction. "So what first?"

[firstofitskind]

"Pre-flight check," Liam said, demonstrating the motion that would bring up the HUD. Yes, he'd done a check of his own before Verity had arrived, but if there was something he was a little neurotic about, it was proper flight procedure.

[arboreal_priestess]

And Verity wanted to know. She didn't want to be the cute girlfriend who steered through mostly empty space and then squealed, 'Look, I did it!' She wanted to be able to fly this thing in miserable conditions, under fire, with Liam unable to guide her.

"Okay, so what does a pre-flight check entail?" she asked. "Probably more than checking mirrors, pulling my seat forward - " stupid long-legged siblings " -and making sure the gas isn't on E again."

[firstofitskind]

That wanting to know was precisely why Liam had agreed to teach her in the first place.

"A little more, but also the shuttle equivalent to those," he said. "Navigation, weapons, conventional drive, ID drive, and communications," he pointed out each readout in turn. "You'll want to make sure they all say online."

Which they did, today. Was he planning on intentionally disabling one (or more) of those for future lessons? Absolutely. But for tonight, everything was optimal.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Is learning what we do if they aren't online a lesson for another day?" Verity asked, her mind traveling along different, but still parallel lines.

[firstofitskind]

"Of course," Liam nodded. "But you're not the only one with plans for tonight, so we're keeping things straightforward for now."

Not 'simple', but straightforward.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Works for me," Verity said with a grin. "Okay, so...navigation, weapons, conventional drive, ID drive, and communications," she repeated, pointing to each of them in turn. "All lit up and greens across the board."

...Metaphorically speaking, anyway.

[firstofitskind]

"Good," Liam said. "You'll want to engage conventional drives by tapping on it there, and then on navigation, which will bring up the controls. Right hand is elevation, left is direction. For take-off, just raise your right hand up, slowly, along the y-axis."

[arboreal_priestess]

"I assume speed of my hand is directly related to speed of the ship?" Verity asked. She didn't move her hand yet, unsure if that was an explanation or a direction quite yet.

[firstofitskind]

"You've got it," Liam confirmed. "The controls are very responsive, so we're going to start slow and ease in to the higher speeds." A beat, and then he added: "This is my first time actually teaching anyone any of this, so let me know if my instructions need work." He'd literally been born knowing how to fly, after all. Translating that innate knowledge into instruction was entirely new territory.

[arboreal_priestess]

"You're doing good so far," Verity assured him. She found him one of the easiest people to talk to that she'd ever known, and that included family. "So can I...?"

[firstofitskind]

"Take us up." Liam said, stepping back and settling in to one of the passenger chairs.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Ooooooh," Verity said with a grin, and slowly pushed her hand forward along the grid. "I am going to get us a speeding ticket from a martian, you know that right?"

[firstofitskind]

"You don't think with our powers combined we could sweet-talk them into just giving us a warning?" Liam mused as the shuttle followed Verity's direction and lifted off the ground.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Sounds like you're suggesting we try to seduce them into letting us off easy," Verity said. "And I just want to say, I'm entirely here for watching this happen."

[firstofitskind]

"I have it on good authority that I can be very charming when need be," Liam grinned at her. "And I know how charming you are."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Hey now, no flirting with the pilot," Verity teased. "You'll get me all confused and distracted."

[firstofitskind]

"If I thought you'd be easily confused and distracted, I wouldn't have agreed to teach you how to fly," Liam pointed out. "We're high enough now," he added. "Hold your right palm out as if you're signaling 'stop', and that'll move us forward. Sweep your left hand towards the right to veer right, and towards the left to veer left."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Okay and how do I actually stop?" Verity asked, practicing the sweeping and stop movements, varying the speed a bit to see how the shop reacted.

[firstofitskind]

"Pull your left hand back, out of the interface," Liam instructed.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity did that, easing it out slowly so they didn't come to a screeching halt that would send them crashing into the screens or whatever. "And to start going again, I just slip it back in again?"

[firstofitskind]

"That's... yes. That's it exactly," Liam replied, with a suggestive smirk. Even if the innuendo hadn't been on purpose, he was absolutely taking it there.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Fastest way to get things going in my experience," Verity said, her expression so angelic it could only be bullshit.

[firstofitskind]

Yeah, shockingly enough, Liam was pretty familiar with that particular expression. "Not too fast," he said, his voice low. "Remember, we're taking things nice and slow right now."