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[i]Flight.[/i] [i]Real flight.[/i] It was hard not to be enraptured by the sensation.

She had been on an airship once before in her life. [i]Gullfaxi.[/i] It was a name she would probably always remember, like she remembered her mom's name or the street she had grown up on, one name among many that were integral to the young woman she had become. She and her parents had taken [i]Gullfaxi[/i] from Hasta to Valentia as part of a delegation on a charity drive. Her parents had been involved in so many over the years it was hard for her to remember what they had been campaigning for, but whatever it was they had pummeled their own prior fundraising efforts and were rewarded with a trip from one end of Venus to the other via the skies. The ship had been overcrowded and noisy, buzzing with activity, and occasionally the ship's speakers had erupted with feedback-laced instructions or unhelpful points of interest about the two Sanctum Cities their voyage would take them through. Nicole had [i]loved[/i] it. She had also reconciled herself to the journey being a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So chalk up the current voyage as another reason to be stoked beyond measure about the whirlwind path her life had taken over the last few years.

Still, she would miss Hasta. From her secluded cabin on [i]Laurus'[/i] port side, with its token little viewport above the bunk, she could see bands of rain so fleeting that she could still count the individual drops on the glass. It made her think of home, of how the rain would pour and pour, kissing the city's famed magitech lights until each light source was framed by its own halo. At night, during storms, all those lights seemed to meld into one ethereal jewel. Many a couple had been minted under the glow of Hasta's lights in the rain. Nicole was a sucker for that crap. In her last month at home - whenever her parents weren't smothering her in joyful tears and hugs, anyway - she had resolved to kiss a boy from her neighborhood under those lights. She'd been planning it in her head since childhood, down to the second, and with her future uncertain she decided this was her last, best chance to let him know how she felt. So four nights ago, the last time it had rained in Hasta, she went out for a sandwich and a pastry with her childhood sweetheart, and there, under the lights and the pouring rain--

Nicole Cognoscenti, future Ars Magi and champion of humanity, freaked out and fist bumped him.

Fist. Bumped. [color=ec008c][i]You frickin' loser.[/i][/color]

She had spent the four days since in a fugue state, stuck between wonder and horror at her two divergent situations - at her future at Nova Lux, learning alongside other girls like her, and disbelief that a spineless loser such as her hadn't just melted into a puddle and fled down a storm drain in shame. She had been replaying the moment in her head for all four of those days, and here, in the solitude of her cabin, she was replaying it now. Her mother's reaction had only made it worse. She could still see the look on her mom's face fall from glee to sympathy to stifling laughs at Nicole's pathetic justifications ([color=ec008c]"Hey, a fist bump is...basically knuckles kissing, right?"[/color]) for her cowardice. Her own mother knew what a simp she was. As much as she loved Hasta, she knew there was no staying after that. 

She was thankful for the knock at her cabin door, pulling her from her thoughts. 

When she, and a small assortment of other girls, had assembled in one of the larger cabins, she took a minute to look them all over with an excited little grin. She leaned onto one of her bare legs, knee drawn up underneath her chin while the other stretched out, and took a sandwich half. At a glance, it looked like she'd taken ham. She took a couple halfhearted nibbles, but most of her attention was on the gorgeous woman before them. A real Wing of Justice, tall and graceful and offering guidance. She had never imagined herself cut out for anything like this, so when she left the offer open for questions from the floor, a quiet lull settled over the recruits. Nicole wondered if they were all as awestruck as her, but given the noble bearing of a couple of her fellow girls, she doubted it. It seemed like everyone was just waiting for someone to break the ice. Only the next bands of the storm filled the silence of the cabin.

Leave it to Nicole Cognoscenti to...well, if not seize the moment, fist bump the hell out of it.

[color=ec008c]"Hey, guys,"[/color] she said amiably, lowering her sandwich from her mouth and stretching her other leg out. They crossed at the ankle, and she gave a little wave in the direction of a couple of the girls. [color=ec008c]"My name's Nicole Cognoscenti, out of Hasta. So if any of you want a line on next season's fashions or anything, as long as it doesn't break my bank we can go shopping for them together. [i]Che fai?[/i] I hope we can all be friends soon."[/color]