( closed starter for @svperboi )
Simon stands on the ledge for a few moments, feeling the fear pulse in the air like electricity while everyone on the ground anticipates his drop. It’s hard to make them out from up here, as he is sure it’s hard for them. It is probably that all they can see is a vaguely humanoid figure, but that’s still enough to get them into a tizzy. Perhaps some are pointing up at him, getting others to look, and others are no doubt shouting, trying to convince him not to do it, but the wind rushing around his ears drowns them all out. That droning white noise, whisking the rest of the world away—it’s so… peaceful. He smiles, closes his eyes, and steps off.
He can’t tell what he likes more, the satisfaction he gets, the rush of power, at causing fear in others, or the heart-pounding excitement of the drop itself. It’s so fast, and it only gets exponentially faster the longer you fall, yet it still takes so long, allowing you to fully appreciate exactly how high up you had been to begin with.
But he doesn’t get to enjoy the full descent properly because it is abruptly cut short by a pair of arms, one under his back and one under his knees. His eyes snap open, and then he is staring into the face of a very young boy, probably no older than fifteen. The pair of them are still hovering in the air while the boy holds Simon as if he weighs nothing. On top of the apparent ability to fly, there is something about the child’s face, the energy he gives off, that marks him clearly as one of Simon’s own.
“Why, my dear boy, it would seem that you’ve caught me!” Simon says excitedly, hooking his arm over the child’s shoulders as if he actually needs the support as a means of playing along. “Congratulations! Good show! I mean, really, spectacular stuff. I can hardly remember how I came to be falling, but goodness, if I’m not anymore. Well, actually, aren’t we all in a perpetual state of falling?” He makes a vague gesture with his other hand. “Given how our planet has designed itself and all of that—gravity, you know what I mean.”
He laughs heartily and then remembers that he is supposed to be in mortal peril or what-have-you, so he latches onto the kid with his free hand as well. “In any case, you did stop me from falling in the deadly sort of way, and that’s not nothing! In fact, I think it’s rather something to write home about. So, really, again, excellent going.”
