"You tap the heels together, like this," Naomi says, and demonstrates.
Erich copies her clumsily, and feels the grav boots take hold. He'll have to practice that, but in private, not under the watchful eyes of a lifelong Belter who is probably laughing at the awkward Earthborn behind her quiet smile. He hates being bad at things. Or more to the point, he can't afford to be. Appearing weak, being bad at things, failing would have been the death of him as a child, slower and smaller than most of the rest, and no less so as a gang leader who had won his position through ruthless force and had to watch his back constantly against underlings who might be having delusions of seizing Erich's place at the top of the Baltimore underworld hierarchy.
But he does like zero G. He never really wasted time thinking about it; there was no point, it wasn't like he ever meant to go to space, and he always got around fine in Earth's gravity.
But on Earth, walking was never effortless. This is another thing he wishes he could enjoy without having eyes on him: the strangely satisfying joy of floating dolphinlike through the ship's corridors, in a body as graceful and well-suited to the environment as anyone else's.
The Expanse, Erich & Naomi, Feels Like Flying
Erich copies her clumsily, and feels the grav boots take hold. He'll have to practice that, but in private, not under the watchful eyes of a lifelong Belter who is probably laughing at the awkward Earthborn behind her quiet smile. He hates being bad at things. Or more to the point, he can't afford to be. Appearing weak, being bad at things, failing would have been the death of him as a child, slower and smaller than most of the rest, and no less so as a gang leader who had won his position through ruthless force and had to watch his back constantly against underlings who might be having delusions of seizing Erich's place at the top of the Baltimore underworld hierarchy.
But he does like zero G. He never really wasted time thinking about it; there was no point, it wasn't like he ever meant to go to space, and he always got around fine in Earth's gravity.
But on Earth, walking was never effortless. This is another thing he wishes he could enjoy without having eyes on him: the strangely satisfying joy of floating dolphinlike through the ship's corridors, in a body as graceful and well-suited to the environment as anyone else's.