Layla & Megan | Saturday afternoon

[x-mandelbrot.livejournal.com]

Layla and Megan chat while waiting in line to take the plunge...mostly about Megan being a hallucinogenic and Ms Frost's awesome cred.

Backdated due to player spastic

Megan stopped bouncing when she realized she was starting to hover off the ground a little, and forced her wings still.

"Oh man, we're really doing it," she said to her companion. Once she'd gotten it in her head to try bungee jumping, it had actually taken a lot of time to find a place in New York where they could jump. Somewhere that didn't seem totally... sketch, anyway. All the plotting and planning had only added to the excitement.

Up ahead in line, a couple of people were turning back. "Okay, don't psyche yourself out, Pixie," she told herself. "We're doing this, right, Layla? No turning back."

The blonde laughed and shook her head. "Dude, you're not gonna like throw up on me right before you go get strapped into that harness thing or whatever, are you? Because you've totally got wings and you can just fly if you like decide this falling thing blows."

Megan hadn't exactly been the person Layla would have pegged for an adrenaline junkie but with all her bouncing it was looking like she totally was one. Or maybe that was massive amounts of nervous energy. Either way, Layla was totally betting on Megan getting hooked. By contrast, Layla was calm and even somewhat nonchalant. Of course, her stomach would probably try to jump up her throat to escape her body when it actually came time to jump. But no one had to know that.

"Oh! Well, I'm not sure how well I can use my wings when we're in the harnesses. Did you know that when I was first learning flying, I was afraid of falling, and so I wouldn't go very high?" Megan tended to babble when she was nervous. "But I haven't fallen yet. So now I'm like... what else should I try? I don't think I'll puke, though. Stomach of iron," she said, tapping her belly.

"That must make you deceptively heavy," Layla quipped with a half-grin. "Besides, it's all good, if you get really nervous just, like, close your eyes. Except then you might have a flash back to one of those falling dreams and those are always so creepy. So maybe not so much, y'know? But, you know, it'll be fine." It was possible she was convincing herself as they took another step forward in line. "Hey, but how many bragging rights do we get?" Layla glanced over her shoulder at their teacher. "Think Ms Frost will flip out when we actually jump?"

"Hmm? Oh!" Megan just caught the joke about being weighed down by her stomach. "Oh, yeah, do you think she'll actually watch us jump? Our history teacher? It's so cool that she agreed to sign for us." She hovered slightly above the crowd to see if she could tell how close they were. "If my cord snaps and I die, you can bring me back to life, right?"

"Uh..." Layla looked around shiftily. "Maybe? I dunno. Dude, I landed in the fucking hospital for like three days because of a lab. Labrador, I mean, the dog. I'd be like in a coma for three months if I brought you back, I think." She scratched her head, trying to think about that seriously. "I could try. But, dude, do you really wanna like come back to life after being flattened? Do you know how uncomfortable that's gonna be with the broken neck and smooshed face and the one wing dangling off like a giant cat was using you as a toy? You would so not be cute anymore and then what would you do?"

Megan cringed at the awful mental image. "I'd have to continually dust myself so I wouldn't be aware of my condition, I guess. They'd have to keep me at Muir Island or something. That won't happen though. This place is totally safe!"

Trying to hold back her smile made Layla sort of smirky. "What, you mean you don't wanna totally be on a trip for like the rest of your life? Think of the rainbows and unicorns, Megan! They could be your bestest best friends ever!" She held as straight a face as she good for all of about half a second before she erupted with giggling laughter. "I have the most awesome mental image of you cuddling a pillow thinking you're hugging a unicorn's neck!"

Megan broke out into a giggle fit. "That's too funny! It could happen, though," she said when she caught her breath. She wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye. "Last time I dusted myself I was dancing with rainbows and Santa Claus." Normally she reserved her observations from self-tests to her secret journal. The one with the rainbows and unicorns on it.

"You were dancing...with Santa Claus?" Layla blinked at her. "I guess he's gotta be like flexible to get down all those chimneys, right? Was he a good dancer?"

"I think so. There were patterns spiraling out of everywhere, like in the wrapping paper on the presents. So it was kinda hard to see exactly, in the normal sense, but I remember it being awesome at the time. But hey, anyone can dance, right? Someone just sent me a video of a 90-year-old lady dancing to 'Party Rock Anthem'. Have you seen it?"

And more blinking. "No. Should I? I'm not sure if it would be awesome or totally traumatizing. And oh. my. god. Why am I suddenly picturing Professor Xavier totally getting down with some chair dancing and trying to like pop wheelies like Artie on Glee? Holy shit, what is wrong with my head?" Layla's attention snapped to Megan and she pointed a finger at her. "Did you dust me on the downlow?"

Megan burst into another fit of giggles. "Oh great... now the snorting." She forced herself to calm down enough to stop the ridiculous giggle-snorts. "I like you. You have funny thoughts. If I dusted you, neither one of us would probably ever stop laughing. That might be dangerous." But she grinned to imply that they should totally try it sometime.

Megan's grin was answered with a near identical one from Layla. The blonde's eyes shifted back where Ms Frost was standing and she waved at her teacher with a bright grin. "Oh, we totally should do that. It'd be like, I dunno, LSD or something without the brain damage and shit. Wait...does your dust cause brain damage? Because X causes like holes in your brain and I do not need swiss cheese brainmeat. My brain malfunctions enough already,"

"Well, I've been doing as much research as I can on my powers and similar things that exist in plants and stuff. I think all that stuff about holes in your brain is part of an old scare-campaign. Everything that I've read recently says that isn't true. If you scan a brain of a person who's just had a dose of X or LSD or anything else that releases serotonin, you will see 'holes' where the chemical has been temporarily depleted. But like... your brain makes more pretty quickly. But then again, I haven't had any formal scientific research done on my dust so I don't know if it works the same way as other things." Megan glanced shiftily at Ms Frost, too.

"So basically you propose that because other drugs made with totally poisonous chemicals like Drain-O and shit don't really put holes in your head then your dust probably won't either?" Layla thought about that for a second and grinned. "You are totally an organic drug. Like pot or magic mushrooms or something! It's like...the good for you drug trip."

"Oh, well I don't know all about those types of drugs. There are definitely some that are not safe, like meth or whatever. LSD is derived from a fungus or something, and I think MDMA is made from a type of tree bark. They may be made in a lab but at least it doesn't involve drain cleaner. But anyway, I've mainly been looking into organic stuff, like mushrooms, yeah! From what I can tell, they aren't dangerous, and so far my dust has been perfectly safe." Megan could see the front of the line now.

"What's MDMA?" Layla asked while she jumped to see what was going on up there as they moved forward. There were only a few people ahead of them but Layla wanted to watch what was happening with the people who were going right now. "Imagine if we were trippin' while we did this? "Cause, dude, that has got to be a fucked up trip."

"MDMA is the chemical abbreviation or whatever for X. It's called MDMA in most of the articles I've read," Megan explained matter-of-factly in her high voice. She shrugged, just now realizing she had amassed a suspiciously large amount of info about illicit hallucinogenics over the past two years. She watched the next two people take the jump, screaming their heads off as they went down, laughing as they bounced back up. Her pulse quickened in anticipation. "Yeah, that would be insane! Wow, you're not scared of anything are you, mate?"

Layla grinned and took another step forward when the next pair moved up to start getting strapped into their harnesses. "What's the point in being scared? I mean, you just sort of make yourself do it before you can chicken out. Someone totally famous once said something like how you never regret the things you do, only the things you don't do, right? So what's the point in not doing it and being like 'oh, I wish I did that when I could have' when you're all old. Like thirty-five and shit."

"It's true. I'm already feeling old and I'm only turning 18 in March. I'm like, worried about what I'm going to do once I graduate, will I be able to have adventures before life gets boring, and all that. That's why... jumping! Adventures!" Megan's voice was getting even more high-pitched as she rambled. "We're next!" She looked back to Ms. Frost. "She's totally going to watch us jump! Is she smiling?"

Layla squinted at their teacher. She didn't look very smiley. So what did she do? Beam like an idiot and wave her hand at the woman madly. "Ooooh, you know what we should do even though we would totally need to go like travel to find a place probably? Find a really tall cliff thing to jump off into water. That doesn't involve rocky potential death waiting below. Because that would totally suck. And hurt like a bitch. It'd be like bungee jumping, step one, leaping off cliffs without ropes, step two. And then we can work up to jumping out of planes!"

They stepped to the front now, and suddenly everything was happening very quickly. A worker was helping the girls into the harnesses, and going over the safety information one last time. "Planes! That would be awesome in one of those flying squirrel suits. Know what I mean?"

"With like the things that attach to your arm and leg and shit so you're like you're own parachute?" Layla got shushed so she would pay attention to what the guy in front of her was saying. She promptly shut up and let him finish, then turned back to Megan. "We'd be like a leaf on the wind! Wait, that seems like a bad idea. Didn't dude in that movie who say that get like impaled or something?"

"Ah, maybe?" Megan hadn't seen that movie. She tried not to think about impalement as the guy double-checked their ankle and body harnesses.

With the final checks done, they were given the thumbs up to go get attached to the actual bungees. "You two ready?" The guy was smiling like he could see how terrified and excited they were. When the girls both nodded he instructed for them to step up to the jumping platforms. Layla looked over at Megan, a huge grin on her face as she took a deep breath. The guy gave them both to the count of three, then the girls nodded to each other and went for the leap...both of them screaming the entire way down.