Nimbus Tsura
Major
Secretary to Mr. Breakaway
Sky-Painter Extraordinaire
Posts: 735
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Post by Nimbus Tsura on Apr 27, 2008 20:54:27 GMT -5
OOC: Follows off Aerie Reveille
Skyblast isn't about to just run off on Mirage. He's quite happy to walk at Mirage's side, as he heads out of the base and off to some open space where he can take off. He smirks a little and considers, before answering, "Would you ask the bartender for a sip before the drink is completely mixed? Previews can be far more harmful than helpful. Besides - I need a reason for you to stick and watch this." Skyblast puts one hand on his own hip cockily. During the walk, Skyblast's whole attention is on Mirage, but as soon as they're outside, everything changes. His optics are on the sky, his wings flicking, testing the wind.
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Post by Mirage on Apr 28, 2008 1:27:20 GMT -5
"As if watching your grace and skill in flight would not be impetus enough to stay," Mirage says, smiling down at Skyblast, "Now you have piqued my curiosity even more."
Once outside, Mirage takes no offence at Skyblast's sudden lack of interest. The sky is always the first love of any jet, and Mirage expected nothing less from this one. Though perhaps art competes for that spot in this one's spark.
For a moment, Mirage just enjoys the sun and the breeze, then asks, "Do the conditions suit?"
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Nimbus Tsura
Major
Secretary to Mr. Breakaway
Sky-Painter Extraordinaire
Posts: 735
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Post by Nimbus Tsura on Apr 28, 2008 10:04:07 GMT -5
Some jets are afraid of heights. Those ones may not be on speaking terms with the sky.
"The conditions above are going to be different up there than down here. Have to get to a decent altitude," Skyblast explains. He looks up at the clouds speculatively and continues, "I can work in any conditions, even tornadic. It just takes a methodology change."
Skyblast stretches and bounces up on his tip-toes, trying to give Mirage a peck along the line of his jaw, winking as the metal slivers around one optic iris shut. He murmurs, "For luck."
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Post by Mirage on Apr 28, 2008 18:35:52 GMT -5
Mirage bends down slightly to accept Skyblast's kiss, at the same time tilting his head to try and brush his lips against Skyblast's helm, "For luck, then, though I wager this takes more of skill than luck."
He straightens, then points at a low wall off to one side, "Will that be a suitable place for me to observe from, you think?"
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Nimbus Tsura
Major
Secretary to Mr. Breakaway
Sky-Painter Extraordinaire
Posts: 735
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Post by Nimbus Tsura on Apr 28, 2008 21:05:08 GMT -5
After letting Mirage brush his lips against his helm, Skyblast shakes his head, and he's dead serious as he corrects, "No, sir. I'd rather be lucky than skilled, any day. It's a flier thing."1
He glances over at the location and then back out at the city, commenting, "It's fine. Kinda of drive me nuts, how low they build their buildings, but at least it won't obscure the view."
Then, Skyblast turns his back on Mirage and does not look back. He gets a running start and leaps into the air, transforming. After applying full military thrust, he's into the air, corkscrewing. The colour isn't out yet. He needs altitude, but climbing nearly vertical as he is, he'll have it soon enough.
1 Paraphrased from a book on fighter jet combat, written by an actual fighter pilot who saw real action and studied texts written by other pilots.
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Post by Mirage on Apr 29, 2008 9:15:26 GMT -5
Mirage watches for a moment before moving to that wall. Skyblast really is graceful, and a certainly a lot of fun. Mirage smiles slightly as he positions himself on the wall, lounging as he sits.
Show us your moves, Skypainter.
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Nimbus Tsura
Major
Secretary to Mr. Breakaway
Sky-Painter Extraordinaire
Posts: 735
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Post by Nimbus Tsura on Apr 29, 2008 17:58:03 GMT -5
The Valkyrie can taste the air changing as it sings over his sensors. It is thinner here, refined in a way that Mirage will never know. His little wings are nearly useless. In this regime, it is his speed that gives him lift, first and foremost. He accelerates up to Mach speeds. Skyblast might work slower if it was less windy or if he was working on a more serious piece, but he does have work to do for a war he never wanted.
Despite his speed, his moves are crisp and exacting. He starts off with light grey, laying down a landscape. Right now, the lines make very little sense. Skyblast is relying on the breezes to blow his lines into the correct shape by the time he gets ready for colours and detail work, but of what can be discerned, he is doodling a metal world, like the Cybertron that many know, but profoundly different, all the same. Buildings like metal birds of paradise blooms rise from a cracked surface. He sets his piece out in the badlands, the buildings in the distance.
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Post by Mirage on Apr 30, 2008 11:10:02 GMT -5
Mirage is no connoisseur when it comes to art, no matter what airs he might put on. As he told Skyblast, though, Mirage has an appreciation for art and for artists, for the creative process in all it's incarnations. Perhaps Mirage is more partial to the dramatic arts over the static, finding the intricacies of play and dance more relevant to his own talents. Seldom has he had the pleasure of observing such an undertaking as a skypainting in it's creation. Normally, he was too busy chatting up his date to watch the actual process, appreciating only the finished product.
Perhaps he should have paid better attention. The lines of smoke mean little enough to Mirage at the moment, but watching Skyblast is joy enough.
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Nimbus Tsura
Major
Secretary to Mr. Breakaway
Sky-Painter Extraordinaire
Posts: 735
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Post by Nimbus Tsura on Apr 30, 2008 11:35:08 GMT -5
In the foreground of the jagged landscape, Skyblast lays down lines that the wind will push into the shape of a small outcropping. Atop the precipice, he sketches a small creature, clearly the focus of the piece. The creatures is mechanical and bladed, clearly of the same style as Jazz or Evac or any of Skyblast's Autobots. It resembles a hound, lithe and wiry, bus is possessed of a more sly, shrewd look. A small pair of turbojet engines are mounted on its rear haunches, and the whole creatures fairly screams speed and cleverness. Mirage should know it, despite the differences in stylings between the universes.
It is a turbofox.
Skyblast does not add colour yet. There are a few lines left to draw. Half-hidden behind another outcropping, more in the background, the Valkyrie paints in a bipedal mechanism, built slender and sleek, the skeleton of a fitting hunter for canny prey.
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Post by Mirage on May 1, 2008 10:23:16 GMT -5
Mirage's lips quirk up as the fox takes shape. He has hunted many creatures in the wilds of Cybertron, but the turbofox has always been he favorite prey. Their speed and grace is unmatched, and they provide a unique challenge due to their intelligence.
It pleases Mirage that Skyblast has chosen a subject so dear to Mirage's spark. As Skyblast adds his his last few lines, Mirage can't help but wonder at the skill it takes to anticipate how a line of smoke will be bent into shape by the winds.
"Fascinating."
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Nimbus Tsura
Major
Secretary to Mr. Breakaway
Sky-Painter Extraordinaire
Posts: 735
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Post by Nimbus Tsura on May 1, 2008 11:27:49 GMT -5
The Valkyrie sees nothing wrong with a little shameless fanservice, although there is a more subtle message he would like to convey here.
The hunter is filled in, with a folded and segmented front, like a cone along his chest, broken wheels on his shoulders and legs, and vents on his head. The pieces are chopped and scattered, but it seems as if they could be fitted together, if just a few more adjustment were made, indicating that his transformation would be...
...a Cybertronian Formula racer. A very specific one, in fact, as the white and blue colouration would seem to indicate, and the bright yellow optics.
The Valkyrie jets back to the foreround and colours in the turbofox in mottled light grey, with a bit of gold and black trim.
He sweeps out the background with broad strokes and spangles the sky with stars, crisp and clear.
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Post by Mirage on May 1, 2008 22:32:55 GMT -5
Mirage starts a bit as he realizes exactly what- and who- Skyblast is painting. He actually lifts his hand, reaches out without thinking.
So beautiful. So...unexpected.
And now Mirage is wondering where he might be able to drag Skyblast so that they can have some privacy.
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Nimbus Tsura
Major
Secretary to Mr. Breakaway
Sky-Painter Extraordinaire
Posts: 735
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Post by Nimbus Tsura on May 1, 2008 23:21:24 GMT -5
Was the dart rifle a clue?
Skyblast finished off the painting, weaving and scissoring his flight around the edges of the painting, drawing an elabourate knotwork border that incorporates key symbols from the Allspark. A sloppy signature in the lower corner, and the Valkyrie transforms, falling out of the sky.
He enjoys the feel of the air roaring around his many panels, purging away the high sky's dew from his frame.
There is no high like flying and painting merging into one, a simultaneous act of self-expression and self-definition, but there's a little part of Skyblast that thinks freefall might be able to compete, that sweet surrender to the pull of gravity, when he can finally look up and see his new-made art for the first time.
A little above the ground, he transforms back to jet mode to bleed off speed. Even closer to the ground, now at a safe velocity, he transforms again. If Mirage so desires, he could probably reach up and catch Skyblast. If not, Skyblast will tumble and land on his feet, right in front of Mirage.
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Post by Mirage on May 2, 2008 0:45:00 GMT -5
Mirage most definitely desires to catch the graceful flyer, and unless Skyblasts protests, Mirage will pull Skyblast close and kiss him.
Mirage is a bit touchy-feely, if Skyblast hasn't figured this out yet.
"That," Mirage says with feeling, "is the most amazing, wondrous gift I have been given in a very long time." He looks back up at the sky and smiles, "Though it will do nothing to refute the idea that I am self-absorbed. How long will it last?"
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Nimbus Tsura
Major
Secretary to Mr. Breakaway
Sky-Painter Extraordinaire
Posts: 735
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Post by Nimbus Tsura on May 2, 2008 9:04:36 GMT -5
What's the point of being smaller than most if not to be held and cuddled? Skyblast kisses Mirage back, enjoying the appreciation of his audience. He'd still paint if his audience booed him, fi there was no one but him left on a lonely planet, but he'll definitely take this any day.
Skyblast gets the picture, one might say.
Skyblast replies, bringing up a hand to press lightly against Mirage's chest, "Thank you. I'm glad that you gave me the opportunity and that you find the result to your liking." He adds innocently, "I painted it, not you. Wouldn't even give you a tease about the subject matter." He reaches out to lightly flick his fingers over one of Mirage's side vents. "In this breeze? It'll stay coherent for a few minutes, and it'll look progressively more Impressionist for about an hour, until it reaches the Abstract dissolution point. An hour or so after, and it'll be dispersed."
Skyblast himself could be called self-absorbed, and indeed, Mirage does seem to be missing one aspect of this painting, but that's fair enough. The artist won't complain when he's being held, and Mirage said that he didn't know art to any depth.
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