xp_logs | Megan & Julian: The Boathouse At Sunset (Reply)

Julian bumps into Pixie while taking the air, they catch up and confront the dreaded boathouse to recover her masterpiece.

From nearly as high as he could travel, Julian observed the mansion as he never had been able to before: from the air. Green energy curled around him as he kept his focus on keeping himself aloft, the sun was to his back, so anyone looking his way wouldn't be able to see him. "I shouldn't be here," he muttered. So much had changed, new faces, new troubles- the place itself looked much the same, but it had moved on without him. He drifted lazily out above the water, taking in the sights and sounds of the summer afternoon at his old home.

Megan, too, was soaking in the familiar scene of the lake in summertime. The day had finally moved on from the relentless heat of afternoon and a cool current of air flowed above and from the water. She spotted another flier, but the green energy signature didn't belong to Namor. It looked familiar but she couldn't quite place it. She gently glided down a few metres, riding the current as she approached him. Her? No, he was tall - definitely a him.

Julian was drifting lower when he heard the beating of wings from nearby. He turned to see a welcome and familiar face...though now much more mature than he'd remembered from three years ago- was it really the same girl? He smiled broadly, letting himself drift toward her, the hem of his suit coat blowing in the non-existent breeze, "Megan Gwynn?"

"Julian Keller? Is that really you?" Her all-black eyes went wide, once again capturing a look of youthful innocence. Pink hair drifted around her face and she smiled, reaching out to give him a high-five or a handshake or something. "Since when can you fly? This is amazing! When did you get here?"

"I arrived earlier today," he reached out and took her hand, pulling her in for a hug. "I learned to fly in China, it's a recent development. It is so good to see you, I was starting to think the only person I actually knew around here was the ever-studious Callie?" Smiling, Julian drifted back a moment, taking in Megan's more matured form for a moment before letting her hand go. "You grew up."

"I'm 156 cm," she said proudly, blushing a little. She hadn't grown any taller in the past three years, but it was just like her to blurt out something odd like that. "I'm really glad to see you, too! Fancy duds, stud. Look at you!" Actually, it was kind of hard to look away, what with the perfectly cut suit that showed off his build, amazingly warm smile and just the right amount of facial hair. "It's like a whole new cast of people around here. And even the adults - not that I'm not an adult now -well, I never thought I would be spending this much time with Amanda Sefton. You'll see that a lot is the same, but much is not. Even the 'not' has changed, so that we expect different things from what 'is'," she said cryptically. "So. Isn't flying brilliant?"

"It is," he smirked at the slight blush on her cheeks, which was more visible to him given the sun to his back and her complexion. "I learned from a TeeKay master at a...well, a temple, in the mountains of China." Straightening his tie, he cleared his throat and chuckled awkwardly, "Which sounds a bit odd now that I say it out loud." He chuckled, paused for a beat and then continued, "I suppose people were always coming and going when I was living here too- I missed so much...." He spotted the boat house, "Is Elpis still working out of there?"

"That's incredible! Like, in the true sense of the word, but I believe you." She followed his gaze to the boat house. "Oh, we made the boat house into an art studio. A bunch of us repaired and repainted it." She looked away, a slightly pained expression on her face.

Julian noticed the slight change in her demeanor as she did her best to not look at the campus out-building. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, or as close to it as he could get with the green field glowing between them. "Hey, what is it?"

She looked up, the solid black of her eyes reflecting faint traces of green.

"It's just that, ah, that's where a demon snatched me last winter. We defeated Belasco, but not before he made me his protégé. I'll never forget that time in his realm, and I'm not sure I can see the boat house again without seeing the shadows go all wiggly and hearing scratching inside the walls." She shivered. "I think my painting is still in there," she added on a lighter note.

Julian's jaw dropped slightly before he realized that she'd stopped talking. "Well that's...wow. It seems like I have some catching up to do. Are you okay?" He'd never faced down a demon before- psychotic evil vampire witches, sure, but never a demon.

"I'm still me, I'm ok, I just also have a part of me that's changed. Ms. Amanda is teaching me to be stronger. But that's what we do, right? We grow, we change, we seek out new mentors. Or, you know, sometimes your mentor kind of insists." A dimpled smile showed that she really was OK, even though her cheeks had slimmed over the past few years. "How about you? How are you doing?"

He hadn't been expecting such a mature answer, nor to be asked the same in response. A beat passed before he could formulate a response, "I'm..." terrible? "I'm great, with the exception of my newly incarcerated father and the loss of most of my financial backing. But as you said, I'm still me...and much improved since I left here." He desperately wanted to change the subject and descended toward the boat house ever so slightly, "What were you painting?"

Ah. Family and financial troubles were never fun.

"Oh, it was going to be my first masterpiece," she replied, slightly embarrassed. "I went to Hong Kong last spring, no, 2012, on this art/culture exchange trip through New York Academy of Art. I came back with all these sketches and decided to paint this big, Hong Kong inspired piece but in my own style. Maybe if you want to see the boathouse later, I'll come with and see if it's still there. If it is, I should take it back to my room."

"Why not now? Or if you want," he drifted downward a little bit further and holding out his hand to her, "I could go in and get it for you." He knew how hard it could be to confront your fears, particularly after such an ordeal...though he'd never been through anything close to what Megan had described.

"Oh would you?" She said brightly.Pixie's dragonfly-like wings clattered with uncertainty and she paused."Well... someone may have moved it out of the way. It's about this tall and this wide," she drew a space with her arms about 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide. "Stretched canvas on a wood frame, partially painted. Might have a white tarp over it. Or was it grey? I should probably go with you."

Julian's hand looked very strong and reassuring. She made up her mind to confront the place, the memory, be done with it. It would be a lot easier with someone else there, she hoped, as she placed her much smaller hand lightly atop his.

"You don't have to do this, but if you want to, I'll make sure you're safe- you have my word." With a gentle squeeze he started their descent toward the boat house. A few feet off the ground, he stopped, "Um, I haven't quite got the hang of landings, you may want to set down yourself."

"Thanks. I really appreciate this." She let go to land gently on the grass. The boat house loomed large ahead, looking pretty normal in the late afternoon light. But it was normal, right? She turned away to watch Julian land, remembering landing being tricky once, too.

Taking a deep breath, Julian slowly eased down toward the lines of force that emenated from the ground- at the last moment, just before he was touched down they clashed, sending him falling head-over-heels to the turf. With a sigh, he pushed himself to his feet and dusted himself off, removing the suit-coat and examining the grass stains, "Well, I suppose I'll be visiting my tailor tomorrow."

Pixie winced as Julian surveyed the damage done to the expensive fabric. It seemed like an odd choice of clothing for a summer flight, though. She was wearing shorts and a Joyful Noixe t-shirt that she'd cut apart and modified into a halter top. "You okay?" She wasn't really sure if she was asking Julian or herself.

Julian nodded and draped the jacket over his arm, then loosening his neck-tie, "I'm fine- nothing to be concerned about." He pointed to the flier's landing on the rooftop, "I used to jump off the landing trying to learn to fly...it never worked. Somehow I always put up a shield at landing, some sort of instinct," he made air quotes around the word 'landing'. "Now...shall we?" Julian offered her his free arm.

"I didn't know it was a flier's landing until fairly recently," Pixie looked up at it and glanced around nervously, taking Julian's arm. This was going to be fine. Everything was fine. They reached the door, looking perfectly innocent from this side. "The last time I was on the other side of this door, it wasn't there," she said softly. "There was a shadow of the inside of the door, but nodoor. And it was moving." She shivered as details of that winter day surfaced in her memories. "Can you open it really quickly and throw the lights on?"

She was gripping his arm tighter than Julian had anticipated, he dropped his coat to the grass and raised his hand before him to bring up a glowing green telekinetic bubble around the both of them. "There's nothing to worry about, Megan, nothing can get through," he slipped his other arm back until their hands met, then took hold of hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze. With a flick of his fingers the door swung forward; using his knowledge of the boat house's layout from when it had been his mentor's residence he flicked the nearest light-switch on.

Pixie exhaled, relaxing her death grip as the lights came on. The shield lent a faint green cast to the boat house interior. "Green, I learned in art theory, corresponds emotionally with safety," she said, distantly - for her focus was on her surroundings - as they moved through the lounge area. Memories of her abduction surfaced but Julian kept panic at bay. Another memory rose, of when she, Dori, Nico and Julian had faced violent gang members years ago. Julian had used his shield then, and it had been the first time she'd unleashed her dust in a conflict. A smile twitched the corner of her mouth at the unexpected thought.

Noticing her smile, Julian nodded and did the same, "See? Nothing to be afraid of except for some extremely interesting choices in artistic license." He cocked his head to the side looking at a metallic sculpture that looked like...junk. With a shrug he moved on, "Do you see your painting?"

"Hmm... it might be moved up against a wall. Or it could be in the storage room," she replied, not seeing it. They moved to the left wall and Pixie spotted her metal art caddy on a table next to a glass mason jar. "These are mine," she said, recalling the jar of paint water falling and rolling under this very table. Hardly objects of terror. "I'd thought someone was playing a prank on me at first, knocking things over and whispering creepily."

"I would have thought the same," Julian gave her hand another gentle squeeze to remind her that he was there. While not fully able to grasp the scale of the dread Megan was likely feeling, he could understand it and knew confronting it would help her in the end. "If you want to talk about what happened...I mean, I'm sure you have, but if you need to I'm willing to listen." Julian made a mental note to locate Angelica after this- he needed to get caught up on everything he'd missed.

They moved to the far wall and Pixie picked through a stack of canvases with one hand. "Thanks. I mean it. Everyone has been very kind, especially considering..." She spotted her painting, carefully covered with a white cloth, protected from dust. No one had let it get damaged, after all these months. She felt her eyes warm and her throat tighten as her hand curled around the edge of the canvas frame. "I hurt them. When I was gripped by demon magic. But they still want to work with me. I'm so lucky to have friends to protect me." Relief, gratitude, guilt filled her eyes with tears. She squeezed Julian's hand back, drawing on his strength, and the tears receded. "Here it is."

He smiled and nodded, "Hey, who hasn't tried to attack their friends while possessed? Really, Megan...I can't imagine what you've been through, but I know you to be a good person with kick-ass wings. It wasn't your fault." Turning his attention to the painting, "Now, would you mind if we took a look at your handiwork?" he smiled and brought the painting into the bubble with minimal disturbance.

Her face went a little pink with embarrassment, but the painting actually didn't look as bad as she'd expected. The 60 x 90 cm area had enabled her to get very detailed in the areas that were filled in - more so than with her customized shoes. It was like a visual diary of her trip to Hong Kong - a foreign culture mixed with the kinds of urban textures and graffiti you see everywhere. And of course there were cute little skulls and rainbows, because if she didn't try to do something else specifically, that's what the blobs of paint turned into.

Julian took a moment to admire the piece in its unfinished state, "It's certainly very modern. You have some serious talent, Megan." He took a moment to glance around the rest of the room, "Better than most, I'd say. I may have to commission something from you for my new place."

"Really? That would be brilliant," she replied, flattered. If she could finish this painting without f-ing it up, it really would be her first masterpiece. Then, who knew what kind of challenge she'd be capable of! "What's your new place like?"

With a smile and a shrug, "I can not say that I have seen it yet. Penthouse, rooftop pool with patio, two bedrooms, two baths, full kitchen. I have a decorator working on getting my things squared away and the rest of the place flushed out. You'll have to come by once it's ready to see for yourself." He smiled and gently covered her painting back up. "Do you want to leave it here or take it somewhere else?"

"Yeah, pool party!" She didn't care that she sounded like a teenager just then. She felt like she'd faced the dreaded boat house and gotten a small piece of her former, pre-demon self back. Looking at her prize, now covered, she considered, "It is kind of large for my room on campus. I probably won't finish it unless I do it here - which I think I can do now."

Julian nodded and gave her hand a final squeeze before letting go, "If you ever need some company while you're working in here, just let me know, it will be nice to catch up with you." The faint green light of the shield flickered and the painting floated back to its resting spot on the easel. He was glad he'd run into her- but was now more determined than ever to find Angelica.

"Definitely. I want to hear more about your adventures in China." The shield had faded away, but it seemed to have taken the bad juju with it. The studio space was just that - not a creepy kidnap lair. Even so, maybe she didn't want to be in here by herself just yet. "Shall we get out of here?" Wings in motion, she floated up off the concrete floor and led the way back the way out. Outside, the sun was low on the horizon. Her hand still warm from her friend's, she twirled it in the air and - speaking the words "Will O' Wisp" - produced a small ball of light in her palm. "And I've got other stories for another time."