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[ --she bursts into a fit of giggles. ]

A-although I...--I think there's another crisis you probably should know about.

[She's! So cute! ...Aaand now she's laughing. What?]

That sounds ominous, and at the same time not.

[If it was a major crisis she probably wouldn't be giggling about it...]

[ Should she tell him? She doesn't know if she should tell him.

...Okay she's going to tell him. ]

You might want to look in a mirror.

What?

[THERE ARE NO MIRRORS- oh, wait, yes there are. He leans away to check the side mirror, baffled, and then... oh no.

That is a crisis.

Hastily his hands lift to start sifting through his hair, trying to mend the damage to his once-perfect style, even if it's just going to become a disaster when they have to fly back down again.]

You're one to talk...!

[ Glancing in the rear-view mirror, her hair has been made into an amalgam of slicked-back bangs exploding into a wild, fluffy puff of hair towards the back. Pyra bursts out laughing as she attempts to correct her bangs for a second time since they've stopped flying, to no avail. ]

Mm, I don't know, I kind of like it.

[ She's joking. ]

Think it suits Ignis better.

[With the bangs all spiked up... definitely not a look for them, he's pretty firm on that. But at least she's having some fun with it.]

This might actually make me reconsider hair gel... at least for the days we go flying.

[ While he's distracted with his hair, he'll hear her rustle in her seat. ] Mm, Noct?

[ Calling his attention, she lifts up her communicator, tapping the side of it with her finger. ] How about a picture?

[His hand pauses at his hair, pawing in futility at his locks. They're not sticking straight up anymore, at least...]

I should've known you'd ask. [His tone his mixed between rueful and amused (on one hand, terrible photo! on the other hand, she's hard to say no to) but he scoots a little closer anyway, ready for her to snap it.] You want one better, let's do it in the air.

[Which is super unsafe, yes, but it's still something he'd do without question.]

[ Her Artifices can fly themselves, so it hadn't been a problem to install a rudimentary autopilot brain on this thing. ] How about... one here.

[ Snap! She takes a selfie with him, and then puts away her phone. ] And one up there.

[ They take off again, soaring into the sky... And here's where he'll discover the autopilot function when she selects a mode on the touch screen and takes both hands off the wheel. ]

Let's see... [ Pyra murmurs, adjusting her camera again. ]

[He watches, curious, and is fully ready to take up his own communicator or accept hers in order to snap the photo himself. So of course when she lets the steering wheel go, his eyes widen and he reaches out to hastily grab it in the sort of responsibly self-aware panic that might make even Ignis proud.]

Whoa, whoa! What're you doing?

[WHAT IS AUTOPILOT--]

[ She startles when he suddenly reaches over to the diver's side, grasping the wheel. ] Wh-- No, it's okay!

[ Gently placing a hand upon his that's on the wheel, she takes it off. ] See?

[ Behold. ] An autopilot function!

...You can do that? Make a car drive itself?

[This is. The most intense revelation. Car autopilot.]

Mythra's idea, actually. [ She appears pleased to report this, smiling at him. She motions at the touch screen panel. ]

Our Artifices... [ She's a little quieter at the mention of them, but her voice picks back up in strength. ] They have a version of autopilot, too. While not as complex as theirs, the one that we built into this will be able to help you fly, even hands-free if you set it on a course.

[ She had been tinkering with building it earlier in the year, when she had given Honerva a small, mechanical bird that could function and fly on its own. Building its basic AI had been a little test for herself, a model that she used in constructing the flight capabilities of this car. ] I tried to make flying as easy as possible with anyone who might be driving this in mind.

[He leans in to look at the panel, now searching for commands he hadn't noticed before. Sure enough it's there, while the car gently glides around obstacles without either of them touching the wheel. And she even talked a little more about the Artifices, mostly unprompted! He's being spoiled today.]

That's so cool... this might actually prevent Ignis from having a panic attack at the idea of us in the air. [He grins.] Is there anything you can't do?

[ Her cheeks flush at the praise. There are, indeed, many things she cannot do... as well as many more things of which she's capable, just that she hasn't shown them in all this time. And at the height of her power, reality is hers.

In some sense, working on this flying mechanism itself had been a treat. From the moment she had stepped into this realm, she's been putting herself to work on various things and ideas, but it's been so long since she's made anything as complex as this. ] Having your family in mind did make me make this as extra-safe as possible.

[ As if she wouldn't have had already! But the thought of his friends and family worrying about each other as they fly, or worse, not wanting someone to fly because they are worried-- she had wanted to do everything she could to assure that they're safe. She glances at him, lifting up a hand to brush a few wayward strands of hair away from her face. ] It was... fun to work on this, too.

[ The wings themselves had been wonderful to see come to life again. She has so few things of her world in this one, and after the Fetter nearly killed him, she'd never wish for any of her Artifices to make an appearance, either (were that even possible), no matter how much she might miss them. But seeing the wings themselves brings a nostalgic expression to her face. It's almost like having another piece of her homeworld in this world, too.

Shyly, though, she wants to know his opinion on them-- ] Do you... like the wings? How they look.

[He glances over his shoulder to look at them again, still smiling brightly. Every time he catches so much as a glimpse of them out of the corner of his eye he feels that same gleeful thrill, a reminder that they're in the air, if the wind whipping through his hair wasn't reminder enough.]

Yeah! They're kind of bright for the Regalia, but that just makes 'em stand out. They look like... I dunno, you. You and Mythra. It's almost like your signature on it.

[Bright glowing wingspan? Yeah, that sort of screams Pyra's influence. Even with the aesthetic clash he doesn't at all mind her touch on the family's car.]

[ She's obviously pleased by his answer, cheeks flushing again. ]

M--mm! [ Pyra nods enthusiastically. ] Those wings... They're similar to the ones on our other Artifice, Siren.

I couldn't think of a better way to make her fly in a way that I'd trust to keep you safe. [ Conventional means? What's that? And as much as she knows how Ophion can fly without wings of any sort, Siren's wings adds an extra degree of agility and precision in flying. ]

It sure makes it believable, definitely- as soon as they came out I realized right away what you were telling me.

[wings = flight, it's simple science! And he feels plenty safe. They haven't crashed even once in ten minutes.]

What's Siren like? If you want to say it...

[The name is unfamiliar to him, and while he's curious, she looks so happy that he doesn't want to pry and make her uncomfortable in the middle of a good time.]

Siren is...

[ Extraordinarily dangerous.

But she can do this. ] Humanoid in shape, a mechanical goliath. [ A giant robot, in other words. ] While not as large as Ophion, you'd be able to fit within the palm of their hand.

[ Saying so, she reaches for Noctis' hand to take. She can do this, yes, but she appreciates his support. ]

While I had sent Ophion to hide below the Cloud-Sea, I kept Siren above the atmosphere.

[In the palm of their hand... sounds very Bahamut. His fingers curl around hers, giving her hand a light squeeze, and his expression shows he's grateful she's willing to share.]

So it's like a... magic... space bird. Person.

[Very eloquently spoken.]

[ She is not offended at the description; in fact, she appears amused. A giant space person with wings. ]

Not inaccurate, but also robotic.

[ She looks at Noctis. ] On the cathedrals' scrolls and walls, they'd often depict Siren as a being with feathered wings. [ Something that, unbeknownst to her, they'd conflate with her own image in five hundred years. ] I suppose they thought these ones were too [ extra. ] glow-y and surreal to comprehend.

[ She pauses, looking upward. ] Sometimes we were able to spot Siren in the sky as it remained in orbit. Almost like a slow moving shooting star.

People love doing that. Remember the Cosmogony? The artist gave all the Messengers wings, but none of them have any. And a bunch of the kings! Bet in a few hundred years I'll have wings, too. [He grins at her, carefully ignoring the implications of that. The theoretical is more fun.] That sounds so cool, though. And it'll just run forever up there?

[He's more used to technology or magic needing to "recharge" so to speak. Though maybe if it was in resting mode, it'd be comparable to any of the Lucis Caelums having a nap. The magic builds back up for when they next need it- something like that.]

[ Funny how the depictions do not match reality. It does make her wonder if any of the depictions of the four deities here are different from what they truly appear.

...She would have continued with the topic of wings and his family if he hadn't asked the proceeding question. ] Forever and ever... [ She confirms, quiet for a moment. Forever and ever until the world might end, but yes. Theoretically, yes. ]

If you're wondering, I didn't include space-flight capability on the Regalia.

[/bullet dodged

He considers the comment a moment, then awkwardly scratches at a cheek.]

That's... probably for the best. Sounds like a lot of work.

[Even if they could get past the barrier, he doesn't like the idea of a bunch of extra mods on his dad's car to make it spaceworthy, whatever that might require. He's assuming a lot, but it isn't as if anyone on his world's been to space.]

[ Space is also considerably more dangerous than what they're doing now...

Although she doesn't need to, she looks back in the direction the autopilot's taking them, closing her eyes and breathing in the cool air. She's quiet for a long moment, a moment during which her hand adjusts in his from clasping his palm to interlacing her fingers with his.

When she exhales, she speaks. ] ...I missed this. Flying, I mean.

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