[The rooftops are slick with rain, dampened from a storm that had recently swept across the city. It had left the streets below spotted with puddles, black pools in the thresholds of the evening. The young empress' boots threaten to lose their traction as she runs across the top of a rather tall building, but her training guides her well; she knows exactly how to plant her feet with each step, how to manipulate her body's inertia to her own advantage. She knows how far she can leap, and the exact timing required for each. She moves with royal grace, and never has the misfortune of mistiming anything.
That is, at least, what she would like to someday claim.
Her last jump is what gives her pause, and the second-guessing floods her mind only after her form is midair, caught in an arch between two rooftops. She mentally curses, and a millisecond passes where Emily wonders if she should blame herself or the slickness of the soles of her boots for the error. Another millisecond later, and she's thinking it won't matter if she's just going to be a red splatter on the ground, anyway.
Thankfully, her feet manage to find purchase on the neighboring rooftop, but her center of gravity is askew thanks to her prior miscalculation. There's a precarious moment that follows, in which she tries to steady herself, to force herself to fall forward and not back if she must fall at all. One direction would mean a humiliating stumble, but safety regardless. The other? A highly embarrassing situation that ends in a crumpled body stories below, and she's doing her best to avoid the latter at this very moment.]
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That is, at least, what she would like to someday claim.
Her last jump is what gives her pause, and the second-guessing floods her mind only after her form is midair, caught in an arch between two rooftops. She mentally curses, and a millisecond passes where Emily wonders if she should blame herself or the slickness of the soles of her boots for the error. Another millisecond later, and she's thinking it won't matter if she's just going to be a red splatter on the ground, anyway.
Thankfully, her feet manage to find purchase on the neighboring rooftop, but her center of gravity is askew thanks to her prior miscalculation. There's a precarious moment that follows, in which she tries to steady herself, to force herself to fall forward and not back if she must fall at all. One direction would mean a humiliating stumble, but safety regardless. The other? A highly embarrassing situation that ends in a crumpled body stories below, and she's doing her best to avoid the latter at this very moment.]