xp_logs | Tandy, Julian & Rogue, Skydiving and Splashdown (Reply)

Julian and Tandy make a very bad choice, leading to very chilly consequences.

"Okay, we're as high up as I can get us," Julian held them aloft, holding Tandy's hand firmly as a wavy green shell suspended them nearly four-hundred feet over the lake. "I think this should be high enough," he turned to Tandy, hoping his nervousness wasn't showing.

Tandy didn't look at all when he flew her up and instead held on tight. "What already?" She opened one eye before wrapping her her other free arm around his arm. "Shit..."

Julian's smirk at her reaction was quickly diminished as her shifting weight caused them to wobble in the air. He took a moment to stabilize them, "I did mention that this isn't my strong suit, right?" He laughed...nervously.

"Flying? Or Heights?" Tandy opened her eyes again and looked down. "I am so glad I am not a flyer. Well, Julian, if I die. It was nice knowing you. Anything you like to say to me before I let go?"

"Aside from don't let go?" Julian smirked, perhaps the next time he did this, he'd have the nerves to kiss the girl- if there was a next time. "Are we really doing this?"

"I don't see another option. You said you crash when you land and if I die then I want it to be because of the parachute failed to open." She was still looking down but was growing braver by the second. "Okay just...push me."

"I...um..." was he really chickening out? "I could get us lower and drop us in the lake- that would probably soften the blow a bit." Shaking his head, "Okay, no, here we go. YOLO, right?" Julian grabbed Tandy's other hand and moved her around to face him, looking her in the eyes, "Well, it was nice knowing you." He grinned, leaning back slightly as he got ready to let go.

Tandy looked over at Julian for the first time since opening her eyes. "Lower?" Then he had to say something that made Tandy laugh. "YOLO? Oh my god..." She wanted to hold her stomach as it was hard to stop laughing, and it was just funnier that they were hundreds of feet up in the air. "Okay I got this." She said finally catching her breath but tears were running down her cheeks. "Shame I had to find you so funny prior to my death. See you at the bottom?"

"Remember, count to five- no longer," he said, with a wink, letting go of her hands- and dropping the telekinetic field that was holding them aloft. For a moment, they were suspended, high above the mansion grounds, with the town of Salem Center twinkling nearby. The night air so high above the ground was cold, and grew colder as they began to fall, slowly at first. Counting backward from five, Julian waited with his hand on the ripcord.

"Ah it is cold..." Was all Tandy said as she started to fall down towards the lake, she lost count after three but waited a bit longer before pulling her own ripcord. She was still falling fairly fast and she was afraid that it didn't work until she was pulled and her speed started to decrease. Looking up to see her chute had opened, Tandy started to laugh again this time out of relief. "IT WORKED!"

Julian couldn't hear her, the wind whipping past him as he slowed in his descent by pulling the chord was deafening. His chute deployed and he started his descent slowly toward the lake below. He realized that the water was going to be cold- whatever judgement he'd had before the alcohol at dinner was coming back to him. Using his teekay, he pushed down on the top of the chute, speeding his descent to a point he was about the same level as Tandy. Shouting, "We should try to steer away from the water!" Hopefully they could make it, they were still coming down fairly fast.

"What?" Tandy yelled back. She didn't know if she heard him correctly. Away from the water?

Grasping one of the brake handles and pulling hard toward the shoreline, hoping she'd get the message and he wouldn't have to drag her along with his teekay.

"No wait." Tandy wasn't sure if she wanted to go away from the lake, landing on hard ground was not her idea of fun. She didn't know what she was doing. The water below her was coming up fast - she would risk the water.

Julian wasn't certain how good of a swimmer she was, but he didn't want to risk it. With a sigh, he pulled hard toward her, knowing Scott was going to kill them when he found out about this. He got nearer to her as the lake came up on them and they hit near each other with a splash. Quickly, Julian shed the parachute, hoping Tandy had the forethought to do the same. Keeping hold of one of the cords, he kicked his way to the surface of the frigged lake.

The first thing that entered her mind was cold, and why did she do this. She got the parachute off with little trouble and started to make it for the surface. She could feel the cords of her parachute wrapping around her leg as she broke the surface. "Cold!" She went under again as she tried to get the cord off her and when she did she came back up. "So cold."

A green glow enveloped her, raising her out of the water gently. Floating a few feet away, Julian was panting with exhaustion- the cold water having soaked through to his bones. "Are you. Okay?" he huffed. He began floating her closer, using the techniques he'd learned in China to grab hold of her chute that was quickly sinking to the bottom of the lake.

Her teeth started to chattered as she floated over to the dry land. "Yes." Once she was on land she looked over at him and smirked. "I can't believe we did that."

"Me either," he hovered her a foot off the ground, "I'm going to drop you now, get ready." He let go and hoped she didn't hurt her ankles in the drop. Julian moved himself to the sand and tried to set down. At the last second, as always, he fell face first toward the sand. Fortunately, his shields took the brunt of the impact and his grasp on the parachutes remained. "That was the dumbest thing I've ever done...and I've done some pretty stupid stuff."

Tandy was ready for the short fall and looked over at Julian as he fell forward. "Are you alright?" She walked over to him and knelt down to chattering her teeth. "I have done dumber. I went to Europe over the Summer and what I did there will stay there."

Julian felt a strange pang of jealousy, "Ye-yeah." His teeth were chattering too as he drew in the lines for the parachutes, "I for-got the, the water, would be so...cold." One large silken mess dragged up on shore, and laid upon the damp sand like a beached jellyfish. "W-we need, a fire," he spotted the beach house a short distance away, the lights were out. "Is, there a, f-fire place, in there?"

"It is late." Tandy whispered as she helped with the lines of the chutes. Looking over at the house and shrugged, "Don't know. Rumor has it is haunted."

"It's not- I helped Megan get her painting out of there a couple weeks ago...it's just a building. As if on cue, the cabin like building lit up with electric lights, a beacon shining outwards and destroying Julian's night vision. The door opened and a figure stood, shrouded by light. "Oh, I hate it when I'm wrong...."

The noises outside had startled Rogue, waking her up from an apparently deep sleep. It took her a while to remember where she was, but it came back. She was in the boathouse, surrounded by art supplies, having dozed off after taking a break.

It was harder than she'd thought, coming back and not having Logan around. When she wasn't able to sleep, she'd grabbed a few sketchbooks, her pastels and headed to the Boathouse. Once upon a time it'd been a haven for them, a place to go when it was too overwhelming to be around people.

She heard noises again, and she furrowed her brow. Right, that's what had woken her up in the first place. She went and turned on the lights and saw figures outside. Walking quickly to the door, she opened it and her eyes widened in shock. "Oh my lord, look what the cat dragged in," she exclaimed, lookong at Julian and then at Tandy. Rogue wondered if there was any truth in those tabloid rumours.

"Did y'all lose a fight with King Neptune? Goodness! Get inside, quick. Ya can't be outside and wet. Get on with you!"

"See told you haunted." Tandy walked close to Julian for heat. As the neared the cabin, Tandy could had sworn she heard movement inside and nearly jumped from fright when the door opened. The blonde didn't have to be asked twice and walked straight inside. "Thanks..Rogue right?"

Julian's face had gone pale, and it had nothing to do with the on-set of hypothermia. He was shivering as he got into the boat house and shut the door- it was instantly warmer, but the chill went bone deep. "Thanks, Rogue...um...what did you see?" He started taking off his shirt, he looked around for a blanket.

"Oh," she replied casually, closing the door behind them. "Everything.". She'd actually seen nothing, but she sure did love good gossip. She went to her little makeshift bed, and grabbed the blankets she'd been using. "And the only way to get that chill out is to strip. We're all friends here, sugar. Get naked.". She tossed another blanket to Tandy. "You too, pretty. And you're right -- I'm Rogue and by the looks of you two, I'm your best friend right now."

Tandy's cheeks flushed for the first time of the evening when Rogue told her to get naked. She grabbed the blanket and turned around before peeling off wet shirt revealing her rune mark on her shoulder. She quickly covered with a blanket before kicking off her shoes and socks, followed by her pants. "So much warmer..."

On the other end of the spectrum, Julian did not blush for the first time of night. She hadn't needed to tell him twice as he quickly removed his sodden clothes and draped them over empty easels, until all that remained were his boxers. Then, while looking around for a blanket, "Twice in one day you've had me in my underwear," he winked at Tandy.

"I'll try and contain my excitement." Tandy said as she sat in a chair and pulled up her legs so she can be completely covered. "So, Rogue. What are you doing out here? Can't sleep?" Trying to make a conversation from this awkward situation she was in,

Rogue shook her head, wide smile on her face. "Uh uh, girly. You're in my world, so I get to ask the questions. Or maybe better yet, I'll tell a story. I love stories," she continued, leaning against the doorframe. From her angle, she could see the abandoned parachutes, and could tell from.their behaviour that this wasn't an innocent midnight paragliding session.

"Once upon a time, two lil cute mutants drank just a lil bit too much, decided they needed to get to know each other better and borrowed a couple of parachutes. Now, I can only think of one place with parachutes near here, so I'd like to take the opportunity to commend you both for your ninja skills. That being said, i'm pretty sure you weren't counin' on doin' a Buzz Lightyear, and fallin' with style, nor were ya countin' on gettin' caught. Thankfully, i'm a sucker for these kinds of things. So how about y'all tell me what's the plan now, anf as the only real grown up here, I'll tell ya what I think.". This was all said in a companiable tone, as Rogue genuinely was impressed with the parachutes. She made a mental note to up her pranking game.

"Your silence would be greatly appreciated as I handle getting the parachutes cleaned, repacked and safely stowed aboard the place-we-certainly-did-not-get-them-from," he smiled- what he hoped was- a charming smile.

"Not completely drunk..." Tandy said in a low voice and looked at the other two. "But what it was worth ten out of ten, I will do that again." The blonde shivered again and buried her head under the blanket trying to get warm.

Rogue snorted. "Right. So this is what's gonna happen: Casanova, you're gonna put that smile away. I think we've already established that I'm immune to your charms. You're gonna go home. I'll figure out the parachute and you're gonna buy me an amazing pair of Louis Viuttons. I'll email you the link. Tandy. I got no cute nicknames for you so your name will haveta do. You're gonna march upstairs, pull out the sofa bed and sleep. You and I had a lovely little sleepover, and I jus' totally forgot to tell anyone. I'm also gonna paint you while you sleep, add drool, and put it on facebook. You can accept my terms and avoid any repercussions, or not. Either way, I know more than you both want me to."

His smile fell away into a smirk, "If you can help us cover this up- I'll buy you a whole new wardrobe." Standing, he draped the blanket over himself, "And it was pretty awesome...except the lake part- I didn't think for a second the water was going to be cold. You sure you don't want help with the parachutes? Scott is going to kill me if he finds out, I'd hate to have him take it out on you. And I do need to get my suit dry cleaned...pretty sure they could do parachutes too."

"I am not going to argue with a little painting with drool with it plastered on facebook." Tandy poked her head out. "Is there tea around?"

Rogue just stared at Julian. "Really? Pretty sure a dry cleaner ain't gonna cut it. Be lucky that I used to be allowed to pilot the Blackbird, and had to sit through hours of learning the upkeep. I'll take care of it. Besides, it's wet and heavy. Let the amazing Rogue take care of it. And yes, Tandy. There's tea. Moira lived here. After all. I'll get ya a cuppa. I even think there's random clothes still round, so that Prince Charming here can go home."

Julian flushed a bit at that, he didn't want to go to his room, he'd been enjoying his sort-of-date with Tandy. But not wanting to appear the petulant child, he forced a sheepish smile and turned to his would be date, "I guess this is where I leave you then, Miss Bowen. I have to say, i had a lovely time with you- especially that last part where we nearly froze to death." He started toward the door, draped only in his blanket, them paused and turned, "Perhaps next time...we could try the sky diving during the day." Giving them both a smile he backed out the door and into the dark night.