(Rose)
I wonder how our friends are doing in their town. It's Zeslin-burg now I guess.
It's getting colder so we keep heading south. Outside the dead zone of Paris, nature is still lively. The world isn't dead. Only humankind is, or almost is.
Lately, I keep bugging Blume that I want to fly. I want to feel what it's like to be in the sky.
R - I know you can do it.
B - I want to insure that I can make us land safely first. If I blow us up like a firework, that's not enough. I'm not powerful enough to catch a falling body on a whim.
R - Licht was.
B - Licht is a dangerous monster. I know how seductive this look of an older self has been to you, but you must be careful with her and powers like that.
R - I think you're right about her. But come on, can't you make me fly even a little bit? Come on...
She mumbles something, irritated while I chuckle and mock her. She's trying to refuse, but I'm softly making her bend. After all, she cannot run away from me. I hear her sobbing voice finally submitting.
B - You're the devil...
I laugh in a sadistic manner as a joke which I enjoy too.
Power, like energy, comes in many forms and varying intensities. She repeats one of her lessons to me.
B - My power is just sufficient.
R - Thank you my dear flower.
I kiss one of her roses. She blushes. It's funny because I know some of this reaction is a play at acting human, and also that an increasing part of it is becoming genuine.
Our masks also define ourselves, since they're a part of us. Play is a part of life.
And so, just like that, I learnt how to fly using her power. Even though it was risky of course.
She let me control her power and make it obey to my will. She's piloting it actually. She manages her energy right and I pilot the ship we are.
I'm starting to run through a flat road in the middle of wide fields. I leap ahead. I feel the blood in my legs suddenly flowing very differently.
I feel my weight diminish where my blood feels funny that way, more rapidly.
I make a few more steps with increasing distance as I feel my heartbeat quickly increase, the new blood flow spreading through my body. Gravity changes abruptly as I run weightless.
My weight leaves me like sweat from every pore of my skin, underneath which my blood got warmer and queer.
I feel dizzy and out of breath, but the effort is worth it.
Each long step becomes lighter, a vertigo is growing.
I jump with a final blow.
I jump suddenly and find myself at least a dozen metres up, gradually slowing down. I have a taste of flying. It's incredible!
I'm covered with sweat, feeling like my heart or lungs will explode, but the sight and sensations of being up there in the sky are exquisite.
I can move a little as I raise my limbs. I can choose where to glide toward.
I cough and lose altitude.
The stronger I contract my muscles, the lighter I become I realise. I can fly, but it's more exhausting than running a sprint.
I fall again. I recover before touching the ground but I kept my momentum and fall heavily onto the road. I'm hurt and my forehead bleeds.
I can barely breathe at first. The I breathe heavily and laugh loudly, as I sit there, drenched in sweat.
R - That was amazing Blume!
B - I didn't expect it to work that well, it wasn't easy to twist gravity acceleration for the entire body. We make a good team.
R - A very good team I dare to say.
I see drops of my blood spill onto a flower on my chest. I lick it. I don't like the taste but I like the rose petals on my tongue. She shivers.
The bleeding stops as the cobwebs inside my skin are already at work, sealing the spills.
I can't stand up yet. I'm exhausted.
R - How come your magic is so exhausting?
B - Well, I used my imagination to make your wish work. My power alone wouldn't have been enough nor easy for you to handle. So I used your power, and the way your body transforms energy biologically. Instead of casting a big unreliable spell onto you, I've helped you cast billions of small spells defying gravity through your blood and muscles.
R - Instead of making me float, you made my muscles able to produce fly particles?
B - Something like that. I activated you this way and fuelled you with what I could, while you controlled your organism into floating. You were producing what I would call anti-weight particles.
R - Anti weight atoms?
B - Different scale than atoms. You produced millions of bubbles-like particles with a negative weight. These particles are unstable though, so they're like bubbles in that they don't last. You had to keep making them, draining your energy.
R - Well, sweating these unnatural bubbles did make me work up a strong sweat yes. I'm exhausted.
I'm drenched and my lungs hurt. My head feels like it's still spinning and my heart still aches from exhaustion. Still...
R - This was incredible... We can fly, it's amazing Blume! Thank you my love.
I kiss her again and again. She makes weird metallic words or sounds that betray her joy or something akin to that.
~
For four days, my muscles were sore like never before. Every step I walked was painful.
I'm paying the price for experiencing something extraordinary.
Something outright impossible normally... Well, it used to be.
I didn't understand the physics or biology she used to make it work, but still! For a few seconds, I flew!
Now Blume keeps mocking me because of how sore I am.
The tables have turned. She's laughing at my sore muscles and is the one kissing me in amusement now.
Mean spirited flower... I'm still smiling though. We're both very happy.
We have new options, and we'll have new opportunities to enjoy this... This incredible option...
Goodness... We can fly.
~